London pharmacists making hand sanitizer in wake of shortage

CTV London: Cleaning up London pharmacists create their own hand sanitizer amidst shortage

London, Ont. — A pair of London pharmacists are doing their part to help stop the spread of the virus by making their own hand sanitizer.

TMC Pharmacy in Hyde Park began selling the home made bottles at cost Saturday morning, and saw quickly how big of a demand there is in the city.

"Ever since it was declared a pandemic there has been a lot of demand for hand sanitizer," says Samer Serhan, co-owner of TMC Pharmacy,

"We've been seeing them sell for $10 for the smallest bottles. We have a compounding facility and why not make it with the World Health Organization (WHO) formula that is out there."

Serhan and his co-owner Ennis Obaisi got the ingredients, and decided to make and sell the 60 ml spray bottles and sell them for their own cost. They say they don't want to make any money off the sanitizer, just provide a service to the community.

They posted the notice on Reddit and Facebook Friday night, and by opening time on Saturday, they had 15 people lined up waiting.

" When we first opened we had 50 bottles," says Obaisi.

"We did make a limit of two per person, but even with some people getting just one bottle, we sold out."

The phone calls have been coming in steadily all day, and Obaisi even drove around the city to look for ingredients to make more. However everyone was sold out of the ingredients as well.

The duo says they hope to make a larger batch Monday and have it available for sale by Tuesday.