Tylenol Harder to Find Than Flu Shots at Local Pharmacies

Last week it was tough finding a local pharmacy that had the flu shot available.

This week the brand name painkiller Tylenol is even harder to find, especially at CVS stores.

The Sayville location is completely out of the pain reliever, while the Bayport location has one to two bottles left and neither store expects to be getting any more anytime soon.

One store employee stated he believed it was due to a recall of the product, but another employee said supplies had been declining for quite awhile.

Neither employee knew about manufacturing issues at Tylenol parent Johnson & Johnson, which Reuters reported is the reason for the shortage.

A CVS spokesman told Reuters that CVS will try to have Tylenol in stores in each market, but will not be able to stock every store.

Tylenol has battled manufacturing issues for years, and that's led to customers being more comfortable taking private-label versions of Acetaminophen, which is Tylenol's chemical name.

Also from the Reuters report:

    In 2009, before the recalls started, Tylenol had 56 percent of the U.S. market share for acetaminophen, according to Euromonitor, a market research data firm. In 2012, that was down to 24 percent. At the same time, private-label market share has grown from 32 percent to 62 percent.