Shortage of some medications at Arkansas pharmacies

Little Rock, Arkansas – Kavanaugh Pharmacy has traditionally experienced high activity around this time of year.

“A busier time of year than the summer traditionally, is just because people start getting sick,” said owner Anne Pace.

However, Pace said they’ve never seen chaos like this before.

“So we’ve had lots of flu cases. Upper respiratory covid is back with vengeance, right now we’re seeing a lot of that, Flu A,” explained Pace.

The pharmacy provides different services, and Pace said that they’re trying to keep up.

“Help to diagnose them with doing our point of care testing that we have, whether it’s flu, strep, covid, or just filling those prescriptions after they’ve been to the doctor,” she explained. “It’s a lot of things we’re managing. Plus we’re still given flu shots.”

Right now, the biggest challenge they’ve been facing is the shortage of certain medications.

“I just feel like every day it’s what’s the new shortage, and how are we going to best deal with that,” said Pace.

Common over-the-counter medications have also flown off the shelves.

“No liquid ibuprofen, we don’t have much of liquid Tylenol,” described Pace.

She has been feeling those impacts not only as a pharmacy owner but also as a mom.

“My daughter has been sick and ended up testing positive for the flu this morning and well we had no liquid ibuprofen on the shelf because we can’t get it,” explained Pace.

She added that the key will be to stay ahead of things as best as they can.

“Amoxicillin and liquid antibiotics, we tried to overbuy what we know that is common. So even if it’s not shorted, we just know that we have extra of that on hand for the increased demand that we’re seeing,” said Pace.

Even if there’s something they don’t have, Pace said that they’ll always help find a solution— their only request is that customers be patient.
“It may not be the exact one your doctor has prescribed or wanted then we need to call them and figure out what we have. That will treat whatever you have as well,” said Pace.