Children’s pain medication now available behind the counter in Alberta pharmacies

The first shipment of children’s pain and fever medication, which landed in the province earlier this month, became available in Alberta pharmacies Monday.

Alberta Premier Danielle Smith says 250,000 bottles of kids’ pain meds ordered from Turkey is now being sold.

The first batch of pharmacy-bound bottles landed in Alberta March 3, officials confirmed to CityNews that week.

In January, 250,000 bottles were delivered exclusively for use in hospitals.

“It has been a painstaking and rigorous process, and it’s taken longer than we’d hoped for, but today I’m pleased to announce the wait is over,” Smith said Monday.

Alberta parents won’t be able to pick up bottles of Parol brand acetaminophen on pharmacy shelves, though. They will be sold behind the counter.

That’s because the imported medicine is less powerful than name brand counterparts, which is why parents will need to speak with a pharmacist to get some.

Alberta’s health minister is assuring consumers the product is as effective and meets the same standards as the brands on shelves.

“Health Canada applies these same high standards to all medication imported into Canada,” said Minister Jason Copping.

The medicine was ordered months earlier by Smith’s government from Turkish manufacturer Atabay, but it had to clear regulatory, safety and quarantine rules before it could be made available in Alberta.

Children’s pain medication Parol, which arrived from Turkey, at an Alberta pharmacy on March 20, 2023. (Credit: CityNews)

The cost to the province is $80 million – about $14 a bottle. The acetaminophen retails for about the same cost as other products, though, because Alberta says it plans to subsidize roughly half the cost of the medicine to keep it competitive with other brands.

The medicine also has a shelf life of two years, so the Alberta government is hopeful other provinces will want to buy some so it can recuperate some of the cost.

“We’re in conversations right now with other provinces to see what they need, and so we’ll be able to get revenue from them should they choose to go forward with this,” said Copping. “We’ll have to work through that.”

The Opposition NDP is calling the move a failure, saying the meds arrived too late and will still be kept behind the counter.

“This $80 million debacle shows how incredibly inept Danielle Smith and the UCP are at managing health care,” said critic Rakhi Pancholi.

READ MORE:

• Alberta receives shipment of kids’ pain meds for pharmacies 3 months after order was placed
• Alberta children’s meds ordered 3 months ago to be stockpiled: health minister 

The purchase was announced by Smith to help overcome severe shortages in fever relief medicine during the height of the flu season.

The meds were originally ordered in December when the country was going through widespread shortages that left shelves barren and hospitals flooded. Since then, supplies have levelled out in many areas.

The UCP government says while the shortage has subsided somewhat, it has not gone away, and the medicine will help prevent future shortages.

The remainder of the order of five million bottles is expected to arrive by the end of March.

—With files from The Canadian Press