Same shortage of Sinemet has been announced across Europe and in Australia. Explanation: "supply problems". Right. It's the famous "Gold Standard" drug, the only treatment developed in the past 60 years, and suddenly companies that have been cranking out L-Dopa for decades have simply ceased production. Mirapex sells for a far higher price than L-Dopa.
Makers of Mirapex are being sued for billions, for not warning that the drug can cause compulsions and destructive addictions, to sex and gambling, etc.
There was some research, shakily and feebly stating that Mirapex causes these problems, but there was no research whatsoever saying that Sinemet caused the same problems.
Suddenly, just as the first warnings of a shortage of Sinemet were announced in Europe in late 2009, they started printing a warning on Sinemet, almost word-for-word the same as the warning for Mirapex, about these dangerous side effects.
Without any research whatsoever.
So, your plan to drop Mirapex but take Sinemet is no longer possible. They have suddenly been declared to be the same, and the cheap one may not be around all the time.
So you may as well stick with the Mirapex. Hey, the side effects have now been declared to be the same. EXCEPT that at the same time, they started stating on the Sinemet packages that Sinemet also causes melanoma. No announcement or anything, they just quietly slipped it in. Makes Mirapex look safer than L-Dopa in my eyes. And the link between Sinemet and skin cancer - did that just suddenly happen after 60 years?
So, it's back to Mirapex for you, at a cost that is about 500% higher than L-Dopa. There is a very plentiful supply of the expensive drug, but not the cheaper one. Because of "supply problems". Entire production lines of Sinemet have been shut down. All of a sudden. With no explanation.
So next time you decide to sue Big Pharma for something like Mirapex, you will have to think twice.. They hold the big end of the stick and they can retaliate enough to put the Parkies back in line, as Amgen did so successfully with the GDNF caper.
The Parkinson's Association of Canada has reacted fiercely: they sent out a press release warning Parkies of the cocaine-like withdrawal symptoms they may go through if they can't get enough drugs. They did not ask for any explanation of why L-Dopa, pushed as the only treatment for 60 years, suddenly has production lines shut down world-wide. No one has dared to suggest that this looks awfully like an artificially-created shortage. It certainly will drive up the price of Sinemet; it certainly will help hold up the sales of Mirapex and other agonists.
If this is a game of money and power, then some Big Pharma execs should be taken away in hand-cuffs, instead of merely being fined, such as the $2.3 billion fine for criminal drug dealing that Pfizer has to pay. They made huge profits on the illegal drug dealing, despite paying the $2.3B Their stock went up, because they proved that a few billion to pay for the damages is no problem for them. The fine was 1% of their sales.
If it is not a power game Big Pharma is playing, then executives would avoid jail time, but be fired for absurd incompetence and bad planning and reckless endangerment. A drug cranked out generically for 60 years, and now there is a world-wide shortage for the next 2 years? All of a sudden?
But these questions will not even be asked, much less answered. Big Pharma has shown again and again that they can get away with anything.
And they know that PWP have no vehicle that will fight back - or, in the case of the Canadian PD Association, even ask the question: why will there be a shortage of anesthetic in the operating rooms and a shortage of drugs for chemotherapy for cancer? Oh wait, wait, my mistake. They would never get away with that; the whole society would hunt them down. But a shortage of L-Dopa? Hey, watch out for the withdrawal symptoms, suckers! And there's plenty, plenty of Mirapex to go around, at 500% higher cost.
And you won't hear much about it, anywhere. About the two year shortage. "Supply problems." Says your drug dealer.