Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the effect on access to Buprenorphine of the recent increase in the price of that drug.

As a consequence of a supply issue affecting buprenorphine earlier this year, some suppliers of buprenorphine have run out of stock and the market price has been increasing since May 2018. Although supplies continued to remain available from other suppliers, we are aware that some may have struggled to support the increase in demand at short notice. The delivery issues were resolved quickly and the overall supply of buprenorphine tablets improved shortly afterwards.

Since this period, the Department has remained in regular contact with all United Kingdom licensed suppliers of buprenorphine and has been working closely with them to monitor their supply position. Based on these conversations, we have been assured that the available supplies are sufficient to meet the usual UK requirements for this drug. The Department continues to monitor this very closely.

The increased purchase price is reflected in the reimbursement price paid to pharmacies, to ensure that supplies remain available to patients. The market for buprenorphine has generally been competitive and we expect the supply situation to improve over the coming weeks which is likely to result in an increasingly competitive market.