I suggest that anyone wanting to look in detail at the frustration of the sinemet shortage (if in fact there ever was one – lots of pills disappeared from shelves and showed up for sale on the internet) should read over two previous threads – the one that starts in Canada but ends up in Spain: http://neurotalk.psychcentral.com/thread113354.html
And the one that follows it, in the U.K: http://neurotalk.psychcentral.com/thread129198.html

Futile endeavor for PWP; Big victory for Pharma - they demonstrated that all they have to do is stonewall and reveal nothing; they demonstrated that Merck is in 81 countries and PWP orgs are local; they demonstrated that they can play one country against another, and divert pills from one country to another with a system of triage we are not allowed to know about; they demonstrated that they can run a shortage for 3 years (2009, 2010, 2011), shifting from country with the U.S.A. last, and never explain why they shut down the old factory 3 years before opening a new one; and they demonstrated that the customer, the patient, has no connection with them at all; when they decided to change suppliers, while insisting it had nothing to do with quality; it is very hard to believe that the interests of Parkies were anywhere or at any time taken into consideration. When you get millions of people around the world addicted to a drug, and for half a century it remains the only drug, there should be some sort of legal and moral obligation on the part of the drug dealers to keep that supply coming into the 'hood.
Merck also demonstrated fierce and nasty sense of humour, for example in the letters to Australia, where they say, "Hey look, if you don't like this, call up your doctor and tell him to find some alternative treatment for you,"
AHhhhh, yes, the alternative treatments for Parkinson's! Be hard to choose - there are just so many other treatments to choose from - and oh, Merck? Thanks a lot for telling 5 million PWP to call their neurologist. In normal times in Quebec, it takes 4 to 6 months to get a 10 to 15 minute appointment with a neuro - that's in normal times. It gets worse if one of the largest Pharma companies in the world tells millions of PWP "Don't call us!! Call your neuro!" For weeks, you could not even get voice mail - you just got a busy signal. Must have been good for a few laughs. "What did you tell them? I told them if they don't like it, they can choose another treatment!."
Merck showed the Pharma industry how it is done, and Merck's public relations department sure earned that bonus.