Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of establishing a British supplier of Creon.

The Department has been working with suppliers to address current supply issues with Creon, which is a brand of pancreatic enzyme replacement therapy (PERT) used by patients with conditions such as cystic fibrosis and certain cancers, including pancreatic cancer. The supply issues with Creon are impacting countries throughout Europe and have been caused by the limited availability of raw ingredients and manufacturing capacity constraints to produce volumes needed to meet demand. These issues have resulted in knock-on supply disruptions of alternative PERT medications.

The Department is continuing to work with all suppliers of PERT to help resolve the supply issues in the short and longer term by asking that they expedite deliveries, source stock from other markets, and increase production. The Department has also reached out to specialist importers of unlicensed medicine to understand whether they can source unlicensed imports of Creon to help mitigate this supply issue. Where such imports have been sourced, the Department has worked with the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency to expedite regulatory processes.

There are no plans to make an assessment of the potential merits of establishing a British supplier of Creon. However, we have established incentives to encourage United Kingdom life sciences manufacture, including via the Life Science Innovative Manufacturing Fund. The Government has committed up to £520 million to support businesses investing in life science manufacturing projects in the UK, and this would be open to applicants interested in setting up PERT manufacture in the UK.