Medicines shortages are the “new normal” in the UK and will be exacerbated by Brexit, a report from health think tank the Nuffield Trust has warned. It has been found that the number of unavailable medicines has recently surged dramatically, causing serious problems for doctors, pharmacists, the NHS and patients.
The number of alerts issued by pharmaceutical companies about impending supply issues for specific products more than doubled from 648 in 2020 to 1,634 last year.
Mark Dayan, lead author of the report and head of the Nuffield Trust’s Brexit program, said: “The rise in shortages of critical medicines from rare to commonplace “This is a shocking development that most people would not have expected 10 years ago.”
The UK has been suffering from major shortages of drugs to treat ADHD, type 2 diabetes and epilepsy since last year. The three ADHD drugs that were in short supply were expected to be back in regular circulation by the end of 2023, but they remain difficult to obtain.
Pharmacy leaders have warned that shortages of some medicines are so severe that they are putting the health and even lives of seriously ill patients at risk.
Medical charities are experiencing a surge in calls from patients unable to access their regular medicines. Nicola Swanborough, Head of External Affairs at the Epilepsy Society, said: “Our helpline receives a huge response from desperate people who have had to travel many miles and visit multiple pharmacies to get their medication. “We’re inundated with calls,” he said.
Paul Rees, chief executive of the National Pharmacy Association, which represents most of the UK’s 7,000 independent pharmacies, said: “For patients who depend on life-saving medicines for their health, supply shortages are a real and “It’s an immediate danger.” Pharmacy teams have seen the problem worsen in the country in recent years, putting more patients at risk.
“Pharmacists…spend hours every day searching for inventory, but too often they have to turn patients away. It is sad to realize that we cannot provide pharmaceutical services.”
Global manufacturing challenges related to coronavirus, inflation, the war in Ukraine and global instability are creating an unprecedented situation in the UK where patients need reliable access to medicines.
But Brexit in 2020 will significantly exacerbate the problem, exposing “vulnerabilities” in the country’s medicines supply chain and potentially leading to a worsening of the situation, the report said.
The report said: “It reveals a clear picture of underlying vulnerabilities at global and UK level. Brexit is not the root cause, and in particular some companies are “This has been exacerbated in certain ways by Brexit, through the exclusion of the UK from the EU.”
The UK’s withdrawal from the single market has disrupted the previously smooth supply of medicines, for example through mandatory customs checks at borders. The same goes for the decision to start approving the The UK is currently far behind the EU in making new medicines available, the report found.
Post-Brexit bureaucracy has caused some companies to stop supplying to the UK altogether.
The fact that the fall in the value of the pound after the Brexit vote in 2016 coincided with significant shortages in the supply of medicines around the world, as pharmaceutical companies suffered raw material shortages and pushed up prices. played an important role in causing the shortage.
This has forced the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) to agree to pay above normal prices for medicines for which there is a lack of effort to ensure continuity of supply, much more often than before. I no longer get it. ‘Price concessions’ will increase tenfold from around 20 a month before 2016 to 199 a month in late 2022, costing England’s NHS £220m in 2022-23. , the think tank found.
The report is based on freedom of information requests from health authorities, as well as interviews and discussions with key figures in the pharmaceutical industry, senior DHSC civil servants and the European Health Agency.
He warned that leaving the EU posed “further risks to the UK”. The Nuffield Trust said drug shortages could worsen further as the 27 EU member states recently decided to act as a unified bloc to minimize the impact of global shortages, which could lead to pharmaceutical companies He said supplies to the UK could be given even lower priority.
Dr Andrew Hill, a pharmaceutical industry expert at the University of Liverpool, said: “With these stresses on global supplies, the UK is now even more vulnerable to drug shortages.” The UK currently lags behind the US and Europe when it comes to waiting lists for essential medicines. In other countries, prices are higher and supply regulation is simpler and easier to access. ”
To address the shortage, ministers will need to agree to pay more for generic drugs, which are typically much cheaper than branded drugs, Hill added.
The Royal Pharmaceutical Society, which represents pharmacists, called for the law to be changed to allow community pharmacists to avoid shortages by giving patients slightly different prescriptions, as hospital pharmacists already do.
“At present, liquid versions of the medicine are available, but pharmacists are unable to provide a liquid version if tablets have been prescribed and they are not in stock,” said James Davies, the association’s UK director. “Patients have no choice but to return to their prescriber for a new prescription. This creates unnecessary workload for GPs and delays for patients.”
DHSC said most medicines were still available. “Concession pricing can occur for a variety of reasons and cannot be linked to shortages,” a DHSC spokesperson said.
“Our priority is to ensure that patients continue to receive the treatment they need. There are approximately 14,000 approved medicines, and the overwhelming majority are in sufficient supply.”
