Some B.C. pharmacies reporting unprecedented medication shortages

With flu season in full swing, there's growing frustration among British Columbians over a lack of cold and flu medication.

Pharmacies in Metro Vancouver are reporting unprecedented shortages of over-the-counter medication, coming on the heels of another shortage of children's cold and flu products last fall.

"We're missing a lot of the products that we would typically have," said Vancouver pharmacist Tina Shafiee, pointing to empty shelves behind her.

Shafiee said she's seen shortages and backorders for all sorts of medicine over the last year, and it’s only gotten worse in recent weeks.

"There are some products that are available, the problem though is a lot of them are combination products. And we don't want people to take extra medication if they don't need to," said Shafiee.

She also said patients are feeling frustrated and anxious.

"They'll ask 'When will it be available?' or 'Why is this happening?' and we don't have great answers for that because we don't know when it will be available. It can be tomorrow, it can be in a month. It's hard to say," Shafiee said.

The situation looks worse at some big-chain pharmacies.

"We've never seen this kind of shortage before," said Angelique Berg, the president and CEO of the Canadian Association for Pharmacy Distribution Management (CAPDM).

She said these shortages are due to a sustained spike in demand, and manufacturers are struggling to keep up.

She also said the early demand for children's medication months ago led to manufacturers focusing their attention on those products, and companies didn't have time to ramp up and produce enough cough and cold medicine for adults.

"It's been really difficult to catch up, but we are catching up," Berg said.

"Distribution is delivering the products as soon as they're received. So once they go into the distributors, they're going out right away," she added.

In a statement to CTV News, B.C.’s Ministry of Health said it's aware of the current supply shortage of adult cough and flu medicine.

"We are monitoring this situation closely, and are working with Health Canada, other provinces, territories, and stakeholders to assess the current supply situation," the statement read.

"We are also connecting with product manufacturers to find ways to improve supply.”

In the meantime, people are encouraged to contact different pharmacies to find the particular medication they're looking for and only buy what they need.