Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent assessment he has made of the role of (a) generic, (b) biosimilar and (c) off-patent medicines in addressing medicine shortages.

The resilience of United Kingdom supply chains is a key priority, and the Department is committed to helping to build long term supply chain resilience for medicines. The Department recognises the important role all off patent medicines, including generic and biosimilar medicines, together with branded medicines play in ensuring patients across the UK market have access to the medicines they need and at a price that also ensures value for money.

It is important to note that, like branded medicines, generic and biosimilar medicines can also face issues with supply. While we can’t always prevent supply issues from occurring, we have a range of well-established processes and tools to manage them when they arise and mitigate risks to patients. These include close and regular engagement with suppliers, use of alternative strengths or forms of a medicine to allow patients to remain on the same product, expediting regulatory procedures, sourcing unlicensed imports from abroad, adding products to the restricted exports and hoarding list, use of serious shortage protocols, and issuing National Health Service communications to provide management advice and information on the issue to healthcare professionals including pharmacists, so they can advise and support their patients.