Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if she will create a long-term strategy to ensure supply of key medication for ADHD.

Disruptions to the supply of medicines used for the management of attention deficit and hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) have been primarily driven by issues which have resulted in capacity constraints at key manufacturing sites. The Department has been working closely with the respective manufacturers, and some issues have now been resolved. However, we know that there continue to be disruptions to the supply of some other medicines, which should be largely resolved by April 2024. We have also added ADHD products to the list of medicines that cannot be exported from, or hoarded in, the United Kingdom, to protect supplies for UK patients. We understand how frustrating and distressing medicine supply issues can be and want to assure you that we are working with the respective manufacturers to resolve the issues with ADHD medicine supply in the UK as soon as possible, and to help ensure patients are able to access these medicines in the short and long term.

While we cannot always prevent supply issues from occurring, the Department has a range of well-established processes and tools to manage them when they arise and help mitigate risks to patients. There is a team within the Department that deals specifically with medicine supply problems and which works closely with the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency, the pharmaceutical industry, NHS England, devolved administrations, and others operating in the supply chain to help prevent shortages and to ensure that the risks to patients are minimised when shortages do arise.