Jimmy O’Sullivan of O’Sullivan’s Pharmacy in Fethard says certain medications are not available in pharmacies due to production and economic problems.
While this is the case, he says that most hay fever medicines will have an alternative option or brand.
However, Jimmy says that when supply runs lower, demand runs higher, which could lead to more products becoming completely unavailable.
“We definitely have an alternative; nobody is going to be without something. But, I suppose, if you’re in the habit of trying something that suits you, maybe you might not be able to get that one. The other side of that is if there’s 20 products on the market and suddenly there’s only seven available, well then they’re going to run out a lot quicker because the demand is spread over a smaller pool of products, particularly for the last two weeks, when the pollen count has been higher.”
The Fethard pharmacist also says the diabetes drug Ozempic is becoming a big part of treating weight loss, therefore increasing demand for it.
People are being prescribed the drug as it has been found to be effective in weight loss and this has resulted in Ozempic stock levels dropping, but he says patients with diabetes will be prioritised before patients seeking the drug for weight loss.
Jimmy says it’s still a bit of a mystery as to how the diabetes drug aids weight loss.
“I mean, it is working really well. We don’t know how it works for weight loss, but it seems to burn fat, null your appetite, and one of the side effects of it is that it gives you a slight uneasy, I won’t say sickly feeling, but an uneasy feeling in your tummy, so you don’t really feel like eating. We’ve had people losing 10 kilos in a month on Ozempic; now they would have had a huge BMI before they started. They’d be a big weight, so their percentage weight loss wouldn’t be as big as somebody slighter.”
