Drug shortages in the UK more than doubled between 2020 and 2023 as Brexit “exacerbated” the country’s ability to tackle squeezes in medicine supplies, according to research by the Nuffield Trust.
Since leaving the European Union in January 2020, the UK has faced “constantly elevated medicines shortages” including for key treatments such as antibiotics and epilepsy drugs, the think-tank said on Thursday.
Drugs companies issued 1,643 warnings of impending shortages in 2023, compared to 648 in 2020, the research found.
The higher number of shortages has also led to the government reimbursing pharmacies for buying drugs above their standard cost more frequently. These price concessions increased from 20 instances per month before 2016 to a peak of 199 per month in late 2022.
“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,” said Mark Dayan, the Nuffield Trust’s Brexit programme lead.
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”, he added.
The analysis comes as drug shortages have reached near record highs across Europe and the US in recent years. Some drugmakers have warned that prices for off-patent, generic medicines are now so low it has become unattractive to continue making them. Generics make up the majority of drugs used globally. During the pandemic, the severe lockdown in China also contributed to manufacturing delays.
The Nuffield Trust report said Brexit had “exacerbated” the “underlying fragilities at a global and UK level” in drug supply chains.
Brexit-related challenges that are affecting drug supply include customs checks at the border and additional regulation faced by manufacturers, requirements linked to the UK’s medicines regulator leaving the European Medicines Agency (EMA). These shifts have led some companies to remove the UK from their supply chains.
The UK Medicines and Healthcare Regulatory Agency (MHRA) has also struggled to approve drugs at the same rate as the EU, making it difficult for makers of generic medicines to enter the UK market.
Of drugs authorised in the year to December 2023, 56 were approved sooner in Europe than in the UK, while eight have not yet been approved. Just four drugs were approved faster by the MHRA.
The Nuffield Trust also said that surges in demand for popular drugs, such as hormone replacement therapies, and UK pricing policy had also squeezed supplies in the country.
The findings come after the UK set up a Critical Imports Council on Wednesday made up of 23 industry leaders, which will advise on supply chain resilience for vital goods including medicines and semiconductors.
But the report added that the UK’s exclusion from EU “solidarity” mechanisms meant it could not rely on European neighbours to “insulate” it from future shortages
The Department for Health and Social Care did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Source: Economy - ft.com
