Searching for Colesevelam

[travelfanatic]

A good friend of mine has been prescribed Colesevelam but has been told there is a shortage and she can't get hold of it. She lives in Salisbury. Is there anybody who knows about the shortage or where the drug can be obtained from please?

Thanks in advance for your help!

[johnguitarist]

They said there was a shortage of colestid to i tried every chemist for miles and found 1 that gets me it without a problem 2 years on.

[travelfanatic in reply to johnguitarist]

Thanks!

[Lola1990]

Hi I had same prob with mine when I was first prescribed by my specialist , so my GP changed me to colestid which basically does the same thing plus I found it better less bloating ect and I have never had a prob getting it on prescription which is a good couple of years now .

[travelfanatic in reply to Lola1990]

Thanks!

[Whitesugar]

This came to me in an email from BAD UK

Following recent shortages of bile binding medications BAD UK conducted a poll via our Facebook group and the results were as follows:

POLL FINDINGS

Thanks to those of you who participated in our poll about your current experiences of obtaining bile binder (bile acid sequestration) medications.

We thought it would be helpful to summarise the findings. Whilst it’s concerning that some people are experiencing significant problems and are without bile binders (3.3%), it is good to see that a higher proportion of you (12.1%) have been able to obtain bile binding medications.

15.4% (161) of our active membership (1046) have participated in the poll

7.1% (74) - are experiencing no problems

0.8% (8) have successfully obtained an alternative bile binder

4.2% (44) - are experiencing delays in obtaining regular prescriptions

3.3% (35) - are unable to obtain bile binders due to being unable to get GP / consultant to change to an alternative or alternative prescription not being available either

NHS SPECIALIST PHARMACY WEBSITE UPDATE

The SPS have advised that yesterday they have updated their website with the latest information on the stock availability of bile binders and revised memo for GP’s and Pharmacists. The memo advises that the manufacturing of Questran & Questran light is moving over to a new company.

Things you can do to help your pharmacist obtain your bile binding medications:

🔸plan ahead for ordering your regular prescription by ordering your repeat as soon as your GP practice allows (depending on the area you live in different CCGs there may be variations in number of days before your current prescription runs out (e.g. 7-14 days) and the frequency of ordering repeats (E.g. some area only allow repeats on a monthly basis others allow regular or scripting to be ordered on a 3 monthly basis)

🔸submit your prescription immediately to your pharmacy and explain the shortage situation to them

🔸if your pharmacist is not aware of the problem then share with them this link to the Specialist Pharmacy Services website for all latest updates / actions pharmacists and GP’s / Consultants need to consider / undertake

We will continue to liaise with the NHS Specialist Pharmacy Services and update you as soon as we can.

Should the current situation continue we will monitor it through the use of polls as we have found this an effective way to gauge a snap shot view of how it is affecting BAD patients.

sps.nhs.uk/…/shortage-of-bi...

[travelfanatic in reply to Whitesugar]

Thank you, that's very helpful.

[sweetsusie]

There are two other drugs that work just as well: Colestipol (which is what I take) and Questran. They are miracle drugs just like Welchol, and I've heard of no shortage for either of these.

[Bellacat21]

I take colesevelam only once in 12 months had difficulty getting some seems to be ok at moment but it is brilliant

[IBSNetwork Partner IBS Network]

We recommend speaking to your pharmacist.