Prescribing health professionals: Managing methylphenidate supply issues
Pharmac expects methylphenidate supply outages to continue into 2026.
Supply will be unpredictable
The availability of brands, strengths, and presentations will be unpredictable. You may need to prescribe other brands of methylphenidate or other types of medicines for people with ADHD or narcolepsy to maintain treatment continuity.
Prescribing immediate release
Prescribing software now supports generic prescribing for immediate release (IR) methylphenidate and immediate release brand switching. This has been facilitated by the NZULM.
Prescribing generically allows pharmacists to dispense any funded immediate release brand.
Prescribing modified release
The “specify by brand” flag remains for modified release (MR) methylphenidate products. Medsafe advises monitoring patients when switching modified release (MR) methylphenidate brands and that a new prescription is required if switching a patient to a different MR product if the person's usual brand is unavailable. This includes switching between different formulation types, as well as brands of the same formulation type.
Check the current supply status
More information
Medsafe guidance on switching between long-acting methylphenidate products(external link)
Medsafe guidance about the safety of medicines used to treat ADHD in adults(external link)
Check your professional body for clinical advice on switching medicines.
Navigating special authorities
There are multiple special authority numbers available for ADHD medicines.
Details of Special Authorities for ADHD treatments
Advice from Medsafe
The regulations outline that any registered medical practitioner or nurse practitioner may prescribe methylphenidate products for ADHD, when acting on the written recommendation of a registered psychiatrist or paediatrician.
Medsafe has confirmed the approval notice, issued under regulation 22 (Misuse of Drugs Regulations), applies to the active ingredient ‘methylphenidate’– not to specific products or brands containing methylphenidate.
This means:
- the legal requirements to prescribe a methylphenidate containing medicine after a specialist recommendation are satisfied regardless of whether the specialist recommendation was written for ‘methylphenidate’ or for a specific product or brand of methylphenidate.
- Nurse practitioners and GPs prescribing for patients after a specialist recommendation can apply for an alternative Special Authority for a methylphenidate containing medicine if needed (to switch a patient to an alternative brand), provided that all other relevant eligibility criteria are met.
This relates to the legal and funding mechanisms only. Clinically, nurse practitioners and GPs in primary care may still need specialist advice to change presentations of methylphenidate.
Checking which special authority your patient has
If you are unsure if your patient has a special authority number for a presentation or brand, you can contact Sector Operations at Health New Zealand | Te Whatu Ora.
- use your Patient Management System Electronic Special Authority system or
- phone 0800 855 066 or
- email onlinehelpdesk@health.govt.nz
More information about online Special Authorities | Health NZ website(external link)