Patients in England are suffering from dangerous shortages in supplies of medicines and the cause is wholesalers taking advantage of legitimate rights to parallel import the medicines into other countries (such as Germany) where the prices are much more expensive. Those are the findings of the report of the Parliamentary All Party Pharmacy Group following its enquiry into this issue. It did not blame the suppliers. Kevin Barron, the MP who chairs the Group, said that suppliers are already manufacturing 20-30% over and above what UK patients need. “But sadly UK patients aren’t getting the drugs in a timely fashion before they’re sent abroad and that’s the issue.”
At any one time, 30-40 medicines are in short supply, and this includes treatments for some cancers, depression and Parkinson’s disease. The Group has called on the Government to “up its game” and do more to tackle the issue. The British Association of Pharmaceutical Wholesalers, which represents the nine biggest businesses, supplying 85% of the UK medicines, says that just a few of the 1,700 licence holders are responsible.
The Patients Association has called on the Government to urgently investigate the problem.
The APPG report contemplated whether the Government could consider issuing legal restrictions on the export of medicines on grounds of protecting public health.
Meanwhile, pharmacists have also suffered, as they have had to incur extra costs in sourcing medicines. The Government has already paid them £12m a year because of that. Some believe that is nowhere near enough to compensate for the problem, and the real issue is for patients.
Amongst the specific recommendations made by the report are:
- The Government must unequivocally state that the interests of UK patients must come above everything – not provisions concerned with free movement of goods.
- Quota arrangements must be less burdensome for pharmacists and more transparent.
- Wholesalers should increase buffer stock.
- The Government should consider specific legislation.
- Pharmacists should remember the General Pharmaceutical Council’s guidelines always to put patients first.
- There needs to be much better market information. Market-wide information should be collected and analysed over the next six months.
- The Department of Health should update the APPG in six months with details of its progress.
Paul Gershlick, a Partner and Head of Pharmaceuticals and Life Sciences at Matthew Arnold & Baldwin LLP, comments: “It is interesting that this report is looking to address the issue by stopping wholesalers from exporting (except if that does not harm patients). However, equally, the suppliers could often manufacture more if they want to, but they need to protect their distributors in other countries. The most important thing is that patients must not be adversely affected and made to suffer when enough medicine could reach them, and I applaud the Group’s clear message on that. We are very much looking forward to the seminar we are holding on this important issue on 25 June and to hear what Kevin Barron MP will tell the audience.”