The list of medicines affected by supply issued in 2021 and 2022 – which was shared by the Association of Independent Multiple pharmacies (AIMp) with Channel 4 – includes antibiotics as well as pain relief, epilepsy, and blood-thinning medications.

The reasons behind these shortages include manufacturing issues, problems with raw ingredients and batch failures, Channel 4 claimed in a news report yesterday (April 25).

 

Weeks or months of delays

 

Speaking to Channel 4 yesterday, AIMp CEO Leyla Hannbeck said that “pharmacists and their teams spend a significant amount of time on a daily basis trying to source out medicines for patients”.

“We are very worried about how the supply chain is going to impact our patients,” Dr Hannbeck said.

Delays for some products are “in some cases […] significant”, she continued. “It can be weeks, it can be months.”

 

Read more: Which HRT brands are currently affected by shortages?

 

When pharmacy teams “can’t get the medication at all” – as in the case with some hormone replacement therapy (HRT) products – they should advise “prescribers to switch to an alternative medicine because the supply isn’t simply there”, she said.

“The government needs to have better communication between suppliers and manufacturers” to streamline the supply of HRT products, Dr Hannbeck added.

A report released by the Pharmaceutical Services Negotiating Committee yesterday revealed that all pharmacy teams who responded to the survey had experienced issues with medicine supply, whether this was daily (67%), a few times per week (21%), or weekly (9%).

On top of spending an average of at least five hours a week trying to resolve these issues, two in three pharmacists have faced aggression from patients due to medicine shortages, the survey found.

 

Read more: Aggression against pharmacy teams 'a matter of real concern', says PSNC boss

 

British Generic Manufacturers Association (BGMA) CEO Mark Samuels told C+D today that the BGMA has been tracking medicines with confirmed supply issues since January 2021.

The Department of Health and Social Care and the NHS also monitor this database, he said.

An average of 53 medicines, representing a mixture of "generic and originator, primary and secondary care" drugs saw supply issues each month between March 2021 up until the end of February this year, Mr Samuels said.

These account for 1.5% of all the medicines listed on the drug tariff, he explained.

Rising costs for active pharmaceutical ingredient production, energy and shipping containers are just some of the “increasingly difficult conditions” manufacturers are currently facing, as well as “lengthened supply times stemming from problems like a shipping container scarcity”.

“Together, these issues have made it increasingly challenging for the generics and biosimilars industry,” Mr Samuels said.

 

HRT products “available” despite shortages

 

Pharmacy minister Maria Caulfield said yesterday that the supply issues are affecting “a small number of HRT products”, due to “a dramatic increase in demand”.

“I want to assure women that HRT remains available,” she said.

“We are appointing an HRT chairperson to spearhead urgent action on this issue and apply lessons from our successful vaccine rollout”, Ms Caulfield continued, stating that “the government is working on this as a priority”.

Speaking exclusively to C+D last week (April 21), the Healthcare Distribution Association’s executive director Martin Sawer said “difficulties in getting hold of some products” such as HRT medication are “a fact of life”.

Shortages in HRT products are “understandable” due to a spike in demand “because of the government's encouragement of women to use HRT treatment”, he said.

“Manufacturing of HRT drugs can't just be switched on and off quickly,” he explained.

“There's a whole ramp up process of development of the drug.”