The Pfizer emblem is displayed on the outside of a former Pfizer manufacturing facility, on Might 4, 2014, within the Brooklyn borough of New York.
Mark Lennihan/AP
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Mark Lennihan/AP
The Pfizer emblem is displayed on the outside of a former Pfizer manufacturing facility, on Might 4, 2014, within the Brooklyn borough of New York.
Mark Lennihan/AP
Pfizer is going through a scarcity of penicillin attributable to elevated demand and extra diagnoses of syphilis, the corporate mentioned in a letter to its prospects this week.
The corporate mentioned there may be an “impending inventory out scenario” for choose Bicillin L-A and Bicillin C-R prefilled syringes, Pfizer’s model identify of injectable penicillin.
Prefilled Bicillin L-A pediatric syringes are anticipated to start working low by the tip of June, whereas all Bicillin C-R syringes may start diminishing within the third quarter of this 12 months.
Stock is predicted to begin recovering within the second and third quarters of 2024, Pfizer mentioned.
Penicillin is an antibiotic used to deal with varied kinds of infections, together with sexually transmitted ailments, equivalent to syphilis and pneumonia.
Syphilis charges have been at a historic low from 2000 to 2001, however have elevated yearly since, with a rise of 28.6% from 2020 to 2021, which was probably exacerbated by an interruption in remedy and prevention as a result of COVID-19 pandemic, the Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention mentioned.
The shortage of penicillin comes amid a long-term scarcity of prescribed drugs the U.S. has been experiencing for the final decade, often because of disruptions within the provide chain, just like the one brought on by the pandemic, Marta Wosińska, a visiting fellow at The Brookings Establishment, instructed NPR earlier this 12 months.
Different prescriptions, equivalent to Adderall and kids’s flu remedy have additionally been briefly provide.
