Brexit: Fresh concerns over medicine discontinuations

Almost 300 medicine discontinuations to Northern Ireland have been formally notified to the UK’s Department for Health and Social Care.

A letter, penned by former Brexit negotiator Lord Frost, revealed that to date, formal notifications of between 280 and 290 confirmed medicine discontinuations of supply to Northern Ireland had been received.

It is not yet clear if these are drugs which are still available in NI via other suppliers.

Community Pharmacies NI has suggested 98 per cent of medicines used locally come from Great Britain.

This would potentially mean that some drugs would have to be sourced from elsewhere, unless there is a change to the NI Protocol before January 2022.

The European Commission has previously stated that it will make legislative changes to assist with the supply of medicines into Northern Ireland.

The Department of Health has told Downtown Cool FM that it is aware of the discontinuation notifications and is closely monitoring any changes caused by what it labelled “ongoing uncertainty for the pharmaceutical industry.”

However, the situation has described as ‘intolerable’ by the Ulster Unionist Health spokesperson.

“Earlier this year under the NI Protocol we saw the EU move to limit the movement of certain types of goods and foodstuffs from Great Britain to Northern Ireland. Now, also via the Protocol, the EU is seeking to restrict the movement of medicines from one part of the UK to another,” said MLA Alan Chambers.

“With the grace period due to end on 1st January 2022 there has been considerable concern about the effect that the Northern Ireland Protocol is going to have on the supply of medicines and medical devices into Northern Ireland after that date. Suppliers of these goods had to serve notice on the UK Government by the end of June 2021 if they intended to cease sending products to Northern Ireland.”

The UUP rep said the party welcomes and supports comments contained in “the recently published UK Government Command Paper that 'given the range and depth of these challenges, the simplest way forward may be to remove all medicines from the scope of the Protocol entirely’.”

The DoH says that “unfortunately”, businesses have decided to withdraw supply from NI.

A spokesperson said: “The Department is aware of the recent increases in discontinuation notifications which have arisen because of the ongoing uncertainty for the pharmaceutical industry in respect of the Northern Ireland Protocol.

“Pharmaceutical companies have a legal duty to give six months’ notice of their intention to discontinue a medicine to the market in the United Kingdom. With the medicines grace period ending on 31st December this year some companies have unfortunately taken action to advise of their intention to withdraw medicines from the Northern Ireland market after January 2022.

“The Department continues to closely monitor the situation and work with DHSC to assess any impact on a case by case basis.

“This will inform any mitigating actions needed to maintain access to medicines for our patients and the public on an equitable basis with the rest of the United Kingdom and this remains our priority.”