Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to ensure that pharmacies have adequate supplies of the PPV23 vaccine.

The Department is aware that there is currently limited availability of the pneumococcal polysaccharide vaccine (PPV23). There have been intermittent supply issues over the last 2-3 years due to manufacturing capacity constraints and an increase in global demand for the vaccine.

Public Health England has issued comprehensive guidance to the National Health Service clinicians on the management of potentially affected patients during this time of limited availability. General Practices have been advised to prioritise PPV23 vaccinations based on clinical risk and to plan vaccinations to ensure demand is more consistent across the year.

On 6 November 2019, PPV23 was added to the list of medicines that cannot be parallel exported, further protecting United Kingdom supplies and vaccine availability.