Where Did All The Adderall Go?

November 18, 2011 9:37 AM

Where Did All The Adderall Go?
I've been researching the mysterious American adderall shortage that has paralyzed the cognition and emptied the pocketbooks of millions of legal tweakers (my suffering self included) this year. Looks like the company that introduced the drug to begin with, Shire Plc, is taking advantage of the DEA quota system to boost sales of its new drug Vyvanse—which is basically Dexedrine bioengineered just enough to warrant a new patent—and screw over generic makers of Adderall. Anyway I've produced a fun history of amphetamine, shortages, grotesque corporate greed and the Holy Grail of Big Pharma business models that is the "addiction-proof" addictive drug.

Role: writer

posted by evabraunstein (2 comments total)

This project was posted to MetaFilter by DarlingBri on November 19, 2011: Where Did All The Adderall Go?

Sources?
posted by Bun Surnt at 12:39 AM on November 19, 2011 [2 favorites]

Historical background came in part from this awesome book on the history of amphetamines.

Here's a New York Times story from 1979 about the ban on diet drugs like Obetrol


Which was renamed Adderall in 1994 as explained here in 1996.

Here's another story about the "shortage" boosting sales at Shire

And there are many more sources cited in my story on The Fix
posted by evabraunstein at 12:05 PM on November 19, 2011 [1 favorite]