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Pharma Blog » 2010 » July » 06
Uproar Over Shortage Of Merck Parkinson’s Drug
By Ed Silverman // July 6th, 2010

Patient groups and politicians are demanding that Merck move faster to end an ongoing shortage of Sinemet, a widely used Parkinson’s treatment that the drugmaker says may not become available again until sometime in 2011. For the past few months, Merck has issued a statement blaming the problem on a change in the supply source and the time needed to obtain regulatory approvals, but not safety or quality issues….
The Parkinson’s UK group, however, is no longer willing to accept this excuse and has begun an online campaign to prompt Merck officials to do a better job of communicating the details and more effectively manage the ongoing problem). “Waiting until 2011 is simply not good enough,” says Parkinson’s UK chief executive on the group’s web site. “This shortage should end now.”
And Margo MacDonald, a member of the Scottish Parliament and a Parkinson’s sufferer, tells The Herald: “This news really does horrify me. This drug is supplied by NHS doctors so therefore I assume that there has to be some arrangement between the Health Department and the drug’s suppliers. “I think there might be room for some political questioning as to why this has been allowed to come about.”
Other formulations of the active ingredient are available, but the issue, for some patients, is that simply switching to another medication is a difficult adjustment due to differences in other substances - although, not the active ingredient - used to make those pills.
There has been speculation on the NeuroTalk forum that warnings about compulsive behavior, which have plagued another Parkinson’s drug, Boehringer Ingelheim’s Mirapex, appeared on the Sinemet labeling just as the shortage began, although this logic would suggest Merck yanked the drug to avoid the sort of lawsuits that have plagued Mirapex….