Friday, March 18, 2011

No Levothyroxine?

Hi, I'm an acro buddy in Tokyo, Japan.
I can't believe one week has already passed since the quake.
You probably know about scheduled blackout and all that, but beside, I'm now very concerned for some pituitary/thyroid patients.

Levothyroxine may become unavailable in Japan.

Here is what is going on...

ASKA Pharmaceutical's Thyradin has a 98% share of levothyroxine in Japan.  Their plant is in Iwaki City in Fukushima Prefecture, where the quake hit massively.  What happened was that there were some damages in the facility, so they cannot produce this medication at this point.

We do have one week month of stock in the nation, but it is clear that we are going to run out pretty soon.  I heard Japan will import levothyroxine from other countries. I hope this problem is going to get solved very soon for all the patients who take this medication.

1 comment:

Wayne N. Brown said...

oy! I hope you get the drug ASAP! I guess we will just have to stock you up while in Vegas. :)