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Was this a first time prescription? If not, was there something that prevented the script from being filled earlier?

In usual quiescent conditions, the "insurance" companies often do their damnedest to delay medical care as long as they can get away with. I've had to suffer them only allowing one week of a prescription to be filled at a time, with fulfillment done by overnight shipping. I don't even think it's about saving money per se (overnight shipping of a refrigerated package isn't cheap, and I sure as shit wouldn't have been eating the cost of a misdelivery), but rather control for control's sake.

So ultimately it's not bona fide regulation taking away that last few weeks of slack and creating a needless mad rush, but rather the common setup of the "free market" unaccountably setting uniform policy in lock step, while you might get to choose which hold music you listen to.

Is that relevant?

If there's something that says you can't fill the script until X days before previous runs out because of some "regulation", then yes, it is relevant. It's just another example of short sighted JIT style expectations that only compound situations like this where the supply chain is interrupted.

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