Ibuprofen shortage

[unicornsrule]

Hi

Noticed in my local sainsburys and tesco that the ibuprofen shelfs are all empty apart from ibuprofen caplets
Wondered why this was?!

Dunno - normal shelves full here (buying yesterday)

Normal here too. Maybe ask your local shop why they don't have any?

I got some yesterday and some paracetamol. There was loads.

I've noticed this too a lack of the cheaper ibuprofen around here. Asda had some the other day but the smaller shops never seem to have it.

Seems ok here!

Two supermarkets in town almost devoid of antacids

Suspect they could restock all the shelves easily by raiding the homes of my grandma and all grandmas of friends I know. My grandma has got about 10 boxes for god knows what reason why.

Loads here

I’ve not noticed this. Maybe that shop is crap at ordering

None of the cheaper ones in my local Aldi or Sainsbury's. Also three branches of Boots I went to on Sunday had no effervescent co-codamol (the generic one). Wonder why? 🤔

Paracetamol supposed to be running low so maybe everyone is buying ibuprofen?

Loads near me yesterday.

Keep things back and release them "after a certain date" is a very old method of raising prices and blaming it on "an external event" - works on all levels of the retail chain.
We had this when the Euro came in - some manufacturers even tried to double their prices.

It's Brexit of course

You shouldnt take it anyway, awful for the stomach.

I’ve noticed it gone in my local Tesco.

BEDinhalfanhour it's awful for the stomach. I've had all sorts of issues with it. However I need to take NSAIDs for rheumatoid arthritis so I have no choice.

Supplies seem normal where I live.

Speaking as a grandma, and one with a few boxes at home, the very state and symptoms of my menopause leads to me using painkillers every few days. You don’t get many in a packet so it’s easy to run out, which I usually discover at 2 am when I’m aching and unable to sleep.

It’s mostly about sleep.

But having said that, I am not responsible for the overall shortage! Haven’t noticed less around locally to me (North London)

Keep things back and release them "after a certain date" is a very old method of raising prices and blaming it on "an external event" - works on all levels of the retail chain.

There was an article in the sunday paper about drug wholesalers deliberately holding back stocks of certain drugs so that they could increase prices due to basic economics of supply & demand.

There are some drugs which are in short supply in the UK but widely available abroad, with no reason whatsoever why they weren't available in the UK.

Apparently the worldwide wholesale drug market is starting to operate on the same basis as other commodities, such as oil, sugar, shares, etc., with institutional investors involved trying to make money by buying & selling.

I wonder if people are stocking up for Brexit and the immediate affects are less on the shelves? It must take a bit of time to increase output to meet demand.

I wonder if people are stocking up for Brexit and the immediate affects are less on the shelves?

No, there are also random shortages of drugs only available on prescription in the UK. You can't easily stock up on prescription only drugs - you can usually get each prescription a week or so earlier every month, to get a bit ahead, but that's hardly going to cause shortgages.

No, there are other factors at play, as suggested in the sunday papers, such as institutional investors treating drugs as a commodity, like they do with oil, sugar, shares, etc.

Yeah noticed that there were no paracetamol at all in my local large Sainsbury’s. was told by pharmacists that it’s people stockpiling for brexit.

None in my Tesco either

If you live in Northumberland, they're all in my mam's house.