The Department of Health will be expanding its medical cache to five additional cities to help combat the shortage of prescription medications in South Dakota.
Pierre, Mobridge, Aberdeen, Hot Springs and Yankton, in addition to Rapid City and Sioux Falls, will have an emergency stockpile of medications in case of shortages. In addition to the antibiotics currently stockpiled, DOH is adding Albuterol, Epinephrine, Insulin, Prednisone and Pediatric Amoxicillin to the medical cache.
Secretary of Health Melissa Magstadt says when medications are manufactured in only one or two countries, any serious event can create a shortage. She says those shortages hurt the young, the elderly and the sick more than anyone else, so when they started hearing from pharmacies across the state, DOH immediately began working towards a solution.
Governor Noem is also sending letters to Congressional leadership, South Dakota’s congressional delegation, and the Commissioner of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. These letters urge them to take swift, decisive action to provide long-term policy solutions that will address this challenge. She also urged swift and decisive action from both Congress and the FDA to address worsening shortages across the country.
In May, Governor Noem signed an executive order (2023-07) which required the Department of Health to investigate the cause of the prescription drug shortage and recommend action to be taken back to the governor.
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