drugs
With the help of his mother, Presley Clee-Ferguson, right, who suffers from a seizure disorder brought on through epilepsy, sorts through what is left of his medication used to quell his symptoms with the help of his mother Lorrena Clee in their home in Lower Sackville, N.S. on Friday, February 19, 2016. \n\nA widely used epilepsy drug, valproic acid, which is on the World Health Organization’s list of essential medicines, is in critically short supply across Canada, leaving patients and their family members scrambling for alternatives.\n\n“It’s causing a huge amount of stress,” Presley's mother Lorrena Clee said. “The drug company has forced me into a corner.”\n\nShortages have become increasingly common in Canada due to a range of factors, including unavailability of raw ingredients, regulatory issues and safety problems with manufacturing plants. Some experts also speculate that money is a factor. Most of the drugs in short supply are decades-old generic drugs that don’t generate much revenue, meaning there is little incentive for companies to make them.\n\n\n\n