The stock of RA-Morph 1 mg per ml is currently expected to run out during December 2023, leaving a supply gap of around five months for this strength before another provider, Lumacina New Zealand, can enter the market.
Morphine oral liquid 1 mg per ml is the most used strength of morphine oral liquid, making up 80 per cent of total dispensing.
The remaining stock of RA-Morph 2 mg per ml will not be enough to cover both the 1 mg per ml market and the 2mg per ml market. An alternative product, Wockhardt Morphine Liquid, is needed to cover the gap in supply.
The Wockhardt morphine oral liquid brand is not yet approved by Medsafe and will therefore need to be supplied in line with Section 29 of the Medicines Act 1981.
The other area for potential confusion is that bottles are labelled Wockhardt morphine oral liquid 10 mg per 5 ml. This is of course the same as 2 mg per ml, but it may cause concern and confusion for patients.
Despite these concerns, Pharmac consider this is a better option than not having morphine oral liquid available.
NB 1mg / ml liquid morphine will run out of stock and patients currently using this strength may need to be safely transitioned to the new concentration of medicine when this happens.
New patient prescriptions for liquid morphine should be prescribed using the 10mg/5ml or 2 mg/ml concentration.
More information can be found on the Pharmac website.
A patient information leaflet has been produced (PDF).
Patient focussed information can be found on Healthify He Puna Waiora (previously known as Health Navigator).
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