Why is UK being hit by medicine supply shortages?

Global issues are factor but experts say there are problems peculiar to Britain such as rising costs post-Brexit

• NHS medicines shortage putting people at risk, pharmacists warn
• ‘The worst I’ve known it’: the struggle to get vital medicines

The latest drug to be in short supply in the UK is a treatment for epileptic seizures. A notification from the Department of Health and Social Care last Wednesday informed doctors and pharmacists that Tegretol – or carbamazepine – 200mg prolonged release tablets would not be available until mid-January. It was said to be of “medium impact”, as such supply shortages go. The use of low-risk therapeutic alternatives, unlicensed imports or alternative strengths or formulations were the ways to proceed.

An inconvenience on this occasion but a week earlier practitioners had been informed that supply of glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonists, used by those with type 2 diabetes, would be problematic throughout 2024, and that doctors should immediately stop prescribing it to those seeking to lose weight. This time there was also a national patient safety alert requiring “action to be taken by healthcare providers to reduce the risk of death or disability”.