Adding the measurement that post #28 says would settle it.
The useful distinction on shortages is between what was measured and what was inferred from it. Both end up in the same sentence and only one of them has error bars.
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Access · Shortages · continued
How shortages have affected compounding permissions posts 31–60
This is a continuation of a long topic, addressed by post number rather than by page. Start at post 1.
Post #30 describes the usual case. This is about the unusual one.
Speaking only to shortages as I have actually seen it, rather than as it is usually described: the effect is real, it is smaller than the thread suggests, and the variance between people is larger than the effect.
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g.tamm, post #5: Where I part company with the opening post, and it is a narrow parting. Patient advocacy during shortages: some advocacy groups advocate for patients during shortages. Knowing who they are and following their communication is useful. Go to post
Stockpiling in response to a shortage worsens it, which is true and is a poor argument to make to somebody who has run out.
Happy to expand any of that if it is the useful part.
Bookmarking this. I will come back when I have something worth adding.
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On post #34 — agreed on the reasoning, with one qualification.
Practical note on shortages: write down what you expect before you look. The number of times I have found what I went looking for is higher than chance would allow.
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lyophil_margin, post #2: Building on the opening post rather than restating it. Careful with the language on shortages. "Not detected" and "not present" are different findings and the first is a statement about the method. Go to post
Post #36 is right about the mechanism and I think understates the practical bit.
Shortage status determines what compounding is permitted in some jurisdictions, which links two questions that otherwise seem unrelated.
It reads as pedantry until the day it does not.
Collapsed as off-topic by two members at trust level 3 or above
Source for the shortages figure, since it was asked for. It is in the discussion rather than the abstract, which is why the version circulating is stronger than the paper is.
Reading the surrounding paragraph is worth the two minutes. The authors are more careful than their summarisers.
A note on scope: what I am saying about shortages applies to the case in the first post and I would not extend it further without checking.
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isotonic_drift, post #25: Grateful for the specificity. Vague answers to this question are what sent me looking. Go to post
Anyone reporting availability should say the region and the date, because both determine whether the report is usable.
I have seen it go both ways, which is why I hedge.
Bramley, post #21: Worth separating two things that post #17 runs together. Shortages is a good example of a question where the honest answer is boring and the interesting answers are unsupported. I would go with boring. Go to post
Allocation and rationing: during severe shortages, suppliers might ration allocation to prescribers. Understanding rationing policies from your prescriber matters for planning.
Noting that I have skin in this question and have tried to discount for it.
isotonic_sheet, post #12: That is consistent with mine, for whatever one more account is worth. Go to post
Reading this shortages thread as someone who came in with a fixed view: the third and seventh replies moved me and the confident ones did not.
Reports that a pharmacy has stock are the least durable information on the site and are still worth posting with a date.
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s.okonkwo, post #28: Where an alternative within the class is available, the comparison is a clinical one and the doses are not equivalent. Caveat: everything above assumes the paperwork is what it says it is. Go to post
Helpful, and easy to find again, which is half of what a good reply is.
Narrowing post #43, because the general version has more than one answer.
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).
Not the whole picture, but the part of it I can speak to.
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Whatever the answer on shortages turns out to be, the method for getting there is the same: state the assumption, do the arithmetic in public, invite the correction.
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I read post #47 twice before replying, because I had assumed the opposite.
The reason shortages is hard to answer is that the obvious measurement and the relevant quantity are not the same thing, and substituting one for the other is silent.
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taper_file, post #4: Shortage-driven price movement is real and is a separate question from availability. It is the kind of thing that is obvious once and never again. Go to post
Shortage-driven price movement is real and is a separate question from availability.
Counterpoint on shortages, offered without confidence: the same observation is consistent with a much duller explanation, and nobody has ruled the dull one out.
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Patient advocacy during shortages: some advocacy groups advocate for patients during shortages. Knowing who they are and following their communication is useful.
Adding the caveat now so it does not have to be extracted later.
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c.niemel, post #23: Shortages end and the notices are updated. Checking the current notice takes a minute and is more reliable than a thread from March. Go to post
Building on post #50 rather than restating it.
Reporting rather than recommending, on shortages. What happened is above. Whether it should have is a different question and not one I am qualified to answer.
Post #52 put the caveat in the right place and I want to underline it.
Checked the shortages claim against the primary source this morning. It survives, with a narrower scope than the version quoted here. Posting the narrower scope.
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I read the earlier replies on shortages twice before writing this, because I had assumed the opposite and wanted to be sure I was disagreeing with what was said rather than what I expected.
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NHuddleston, post #31: Adding the measurement that post #28 says would settle it. The useful distinction on shortages is between what was measured and what was inferred from it. Both end up in the same sentence and only one of them has error bars. Go to post
Post #54 is the version of this I will quote in future. One addition.
Shortages came up in a thread eighteen months ago and was answered well. I cannot find it, which is itself the problem, so here is the reconstruction.
lyophil_margin, post #44: Reports that a pharmacy has stock are the least durable information on the site and are still worth posting with a date. Go to post
Nothing to add, except that this is the answer I would give if asked.
Post #57 answers the question as asked. The question underneath it is different.
Both are useful and different. The notice tells you the national position; the account tells you what is happening on the ground.
I have separated what I observed from what I concluded, which does not always happen.
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crossover_review, post #1: How shortages have affected compounding permissions I have a specific reason for asking rather than idle curiosity, and the context is below. I would like to know what people here actually do about shortages, as distinct from what is usually recommended. Those have diverged in every other subject I have looked at closely. Mine is below,… Go to post
I read post #56 twice before replying, because I had assumed the opposite.
Shortages is a question about a distribution, not about a value, and treating it as a value is what produces the confident wrong answers.