Sample Letter with links to find your representatives

A drugmaker’s feud with the DEA is exacerbating the ADHD meds crisis — at a rate of 600 million missing doses a year.

More than a year after the Food and Drug Administration announced a nationwide shortage of Adderall, doctors and patients say they are still struggling to get their hands on ADHD medications. Despite repeated promises from drugmakers that the supply crunches would be resolved soon, shortages persist, and frustration is growing.

A group of House Democrats is calling on the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to explain what the agency is doing to address the shortage of Adderall in the U.S. that was declared exactly one year ago [in October 2022]

Nearly a year after a sweeping opioid settlement imposed new requirements on the companies that provide medications to pharmacies, patients across the United States are having difficulty obtaining drugs to treat many conditions, including anxiety, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and addiction.

A cyberattack on a health-care company has created problems for many patients trying to fill drug prescriptions. For some consumers, the hack has forced them to pay cash for expensive drugs, denied their use of pharmaceutical discount coupons or left them unable to get their refills at all.

All Jennifer Howell wanted was to find medication for her son. Instead, she was caught in a maze of desperate phone calls to pharmacies and physicians.

It has been over a year since the FDA reported the initial medication shortage, Adderall due to a manufacturer delay, and today multiple medications including generic equivalents can be just as hard to come by with no end in sight.

Each manufacturer has a specific limit and the D.E.A. claims that some have extra doses that they could sell. Individual companies, in turn, say that the issue is that the D.E.A. won’t raise their particular quota and they don’t have enough to meet demand.

A Call to Action to Improve the Quality of Life and Life Expectancy of People with ADHD

As the ADHD medication shortage drags on, the Federal Trade Commission and U.S. Department of Health and Human Services seek public input on how pharmaceutical intermediaries may influence drug prices and availability.

Supply from drugmakers for the stimulant medications most commonly prescribed for ADHD are still falling short of demand, the Food and Drug Administration says, and many Americans who rely on these treatments are wondering why the nationwide shortage is continuing into its second year.

As the generic Adderall shortage extends to Vyvanse and Ritalin, the DEA says it has taken steps to increase ADHD medication production and transparency while drug manufacturers claim the federal agency’s production quotas are causing the treatment crisis.

Given the interest related to access to these medications, we want to provide an update on the ongoing actions being taken to resolve the shortages of prescription stimulant medications.