Use an EpiPen? Drug shortage might have you scrambling

Last week, the Food and Drug Administration reported a shortage of Epinephrine Injection, Auto-Injector from Impax Laboratories because of a manufacturing delay. 

What does that mean to you? It means that your pharmacy might be having trouble getting you an EpiPen, EpiPen Jr. and generic versions of those and of Adrenaclick.

Two EpiPen Jr autoinjectors are seen in 2016. Epinephrine autoinjectors, used to treat severe allergic reactions, are in short supply and were added to the Food and Drug Administration’s drug shortage list. (Chris Walker / Chicago Tribune/TNS)

What you can use as a substitute is Auvi-Q auto-injectors. Your doctor also can call your pharmacy and see which ones it has on hand.

The EpiPen manufacture Pfizer had this to say on the news of the shortage: “Pfizer takes very seriously the importance of EpiPen to everyone who needs it, and we are working tirelessly to increase production as rapidly as possible. We are currently shipping
EpiPen, with production increasing over the last few months and anticipated to continue to increase and stabilize over the coming months.”