Mediplacements Medical Recruitment

UK 'may be facing drugs shortage'

Thursday 20th of November 2008

Britain may be facing drugs shortages as it becomes more profitable for pharmacists and wholesalers to sell them abroad, it has been suggested.

According to a report in the Financial Times, the weakening of sterling against the Euro means that buying medicines in the UK is becoming cheaper, increasing the incentive for medicine producers and distributors to sell their products abroad.

Meanwhile, supplies could tighten further as of the beginning of next year, the publication adds, when the government's Pharmaceutical Price Regulation Scheme is imposed under which there will be a five per cent price cut on prescription medicines bought by the National Health Service.

Commenting on the situation, Andrew Hotchkiss, managing director of the UK operations at Eli Lilly - a US pharmaceutical firm which was established in 1876 - said that the combination of factors could conspire to result in a shortage of drugs available to patients in pharmacies.

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