Review on shortages of drugs urged
THE Government has been urged to carry out a review of the UK’S “broken” medicine supply chain after new research found the impact of Brexit has worsened the issue in recent years.
Experts described shortages of the likes of antibiotics and medication for epilepsy as a “shocking development” that is putting pressure on patients, GPS and pharmacists.
Pharmacy leaders also warned they are unable to plan ahead to support patients due to a lack of communication with officials.
Research by think tank the Nuffield Trust and academics, which was funded by the Health Foundation, highlighted “underlying fragilities” in both the global and UK medicine supply chain. It said while problems in the UK were not caused by Brexit, leaving the European Union (EU) has exacerbated them.
This is due to the fall in the value of sterling and the UK being removed from EU supply chains.
Mark Dayan, Brexit programme lead at the Nuffield Trust, said: “We know many of the problems are global and relate to fragile chains of imports from Asia, squeezed by Covid-19 shutdowns, inflation and global instability.
“Officials in the UK have put in place a much more sophisticated system to monitor and respond, and used extra payments to try to keep products flowing. But exiting the EU has left the UK with several additional problems – products no longer flow as smoothly across the borders with the EU, and in the long term our struggles to approve as many medicines might mean we have fewer alternatives available.”
There is also a risk of the UK being left out of EU measures to respond to shortages, such as bringing drug manufacturing back to Europe, the report warned.
Analysing freedom of information requests and public data on drug shortages, researchers found there is now more than double the number of notifications from drug companies warning of impending shortages. Some 1,634 alerts were issued in 2023, up from 648 in 2020.
Researchers also found that UK policy and NHS decisions on pricing and financing has added to the issue.
Mr Dayan added: “The rise in shortages of vital medicines from rare to commonplace has been a shocking development.”
Louise Ansari, chief executive at Healthwatch England, said: “We are calling on the Government to carry out a review of the medicine supply chain to ensure medicine safety and resilience.”