NHS: Drugs

(asked on 11th February 2020) - View Source

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent assessment the National Supply Disruption Response has made of the potential risk to supplies of essential medicines in the next two years.


Answered by
Jo Churchill Portrait
Jo Churchill
Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
This question was answered on 24th February 2020

The Department assesses the potential risk to the supply of medicines on an ongoing basis. It is not the role of the National Supply Disruption Response to provide an ongoing assessment of the potential risk to the supply of medicines.

Where we are aware of a potential risk, the Department’s Medicine Supply team works closely with the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Authority, the pharmaceutical industry, the National Health Service and others operating in the supply chain to help prevent shortages and to ensure that the risks to patients are minimised when they do arise.

In addition to this, marketing authorisation holders of United Kingdom licensed medicines are required under the Health Service Products Regulations 2018 to notify the Department if they are aware of an impending supply shortage of a medicine at least six months prior to the shortage or, if not possible, as soon as reasonably practicable.

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