Dispensers face “new normal” of medicines shortages

Global supply problems have caused a “shock rise” in shortages of drugs such as antibiotics and epilepsy medication, new research from the Nuffield Trust reveals today.

These shortages come at a cost to the patient and the taxpayer, and are happening despite the NHS spending hundreds of extra millions trying to mitigate the problem. The UK risks being left in the cold when it comes to co-ordinated EU attempts to tackle them.

The think-tank's report concludes that the UK is living in a "new normal" of frequent disruptions in medicines supplies, leading to elevated shortages.

One indicator of drug shortages is the sharp rise in the number of price concessions: prior to 2016 there were rarely more than 20 per month but in late 2022 they peaked at 199 and have remained high ever since. According to the think-tank, the excess cost of price concessions is £220m across the year to September 2023.

Other indicators include a more than doubling of the number of warnings of impending shortages, compared to three years ago.

The report shows that the EU exit has not caused the recent spike in medicine shortages, but it is likely to significantly weaken the UK’s ability to respond to them by splitting it from European supply chains, authorisations and collective efforts to respond to shortages.

In particular, the research highlights the risks posed to the UK from being left out of key initiatives like the Critical Medicines Alliance and Voluntary Solidarity Mechanism, led by EU member states to work together to insulate themselves from the impact of medicines shortages.

Researchers also conclude that the UK has been slower to approve drugs than the EU for new drugs that are authorised centrally. Of drugs authorised in the year to December 2023, 56 drugs authorised in Europe were approved later in the UK and eight have not been approved. Four were approved faster.

The research, published as part of a wider report supported by the Health Foundation entitled “The future for health after Brexit”, also reveals that Brexit has forced the NHS to rely on “ethically dubious” sources of migration to shore up its workforce, with recruitment from red list countries rising by almost a third in one year; and that life science and medicine regulation lags behind the EU.

Nuffield Trust Brexit Programme Lead Mark Dayan said: “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.

"The rise in shortages of vital medicines… is creating a great deal of extra work for both GPs and pharmacists.”

Research Supply Shortages