Coming back to: Official shortage notices and what they authorise posts 31–44

Picking up post #30: that is the part I would want checked first.

Manufacturer allocation decisions during a shortage are commercial and are rarely explained, which is frustrating and is not evidence of anything.

That is the version I use. It may not be the version that is correct.

Switching presentation or strength during a shortage is a prescribing decision rather than a substitution anybody should improvise.

I am not the right person to answer the follow-up to this.

Supply interruptions: official shortage notices are published by regulatory agencies. That is the correct primary source rather than pharmacy rumors or forum discussion.

I would be interested in a counterexample if anyone has one.

I had written a reply contradicting post #32 and deleted it. Here is what survived.

Where an alternative within the class is available, the comparison is a clinical one and the doses are not equivalent.

That holds for the case as described. Change the assumptions and it may not.

Compounding during shortages: some jurisdictions allow pharmacy compounding when a marketed product is in shortage. That permission is jurisdiction-specific and time-limited (usually for the duration of the shortage).

Managing an unplanned gap: if a shortage causes a gap in treatment, the questions are how long the gap will be and how that affects your condition. Discussing with your clinician is prudent if the gap is weeks or longer.

Post #34 is the version of this I will quote in future. One addition.

Shortage-driven price movement is real and is a separate question from availability.

The mechanism is plausible, which is not the same as established.

Nothing to add, except that this is the answer I would give if asked.

An observation about Official shortage notices that I cannot explain and am posting anyway, on the principle that unexplained observations are more useful public than private.

Post #36 and I disagree about the size of the effect, not about the direction.

Dose hold versus tapering: if a temporary shortage forces a gap, holding your dose and resuming when supply returns is different from gradually tapering. The two are different decisions.

That holds under the stated conditions and I have stated them.

Post #37 describes the usual case. This is about the unusual one.

Shortage predictions: regulators and suppliers issue shortage alerts before they become acute. Checking the regulatory website for shortages gives you advance notice.

International supply chains: a shortage in one country does not mean shortage in another. That is why ordering from multiple suppliers before a shortage gets bad is prudent if you can.

The published shortage register maintained by the national regulator is the authoritative source here, and it is updated far more often than any thread.

Speaking for myself and not for anyone else who has posted here.

A shortage of one presentation is not a shortage of all of them, and the published notices are specific about which.

Not the whole picture, but the part of it I can speak to.