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Brexit : medicine shortages

Brexit was 5 years ago......and like covid.....it needs to be stopped being used as an excuse for failings

Simple question.....if there is obviously a hugh demand for these drugs why isnt a pharma company in the uk making it?....why are we not importing it from a non eu country that makes them?
 
Trouble is @paultrose is that there is not a "huge" demand as such, just a vital need for those that need them. The effort needed to produce the small but vital quantities in UK is difficult to justify in the commercial terms demanded by governments and businesses. The solution was to have good, slick, supply chains in a market big enough to justify somebody manufacturing a product. Unfortunately, we separated from such a market and supply problems in many sectors have resulted from it.

You cannot fix the problems in the short term, and up to 10 years is short term in this sort of area, and if you are going to let the market sort its self out, then its even longer. Sadly it is those at the end of the chain, who need the stuff, who will pay the penalty.
 
Docb said:
Trouble is @paultrose is that there is not a "huge" demand as such, just a vital need for those that need them. The effort needed to produce the small but vital quantities in UK is difficult to justify in the commercial terms demanded by governments and businesses. The solution was to have good, slick, supply chains in a market big enough to justify somebody manufacturing a product. Unfortunately, we separated from such a market and supply problems in many sectors have resulted from it.

You cannot fix the problems in the short term, and up to 10 years is short term in this sort of area, and if you are going to let the market sort its self out, then its even longer. Sadly it is those at the end of the chain, who need the stuff, who will pay the penalty.
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And a big problem for diabetics is that little if any insulin is now made in Britain. Denmark and France, both in the EU are major suppliers to us.
 
Sorry but i disagree....a quuck goigle shows the big 3 companies have production facilitiez outside the eu......one of them isnt even a eu company.....and there are other companies around the globe oroducing......if you cant get something from your prefered supplier you go else or make it yourself
 
paultrose said:
Sorry but i disagree....a quuck goigle shows the big 3 companies have production facilitiez outside the eu......one of them isnt even a eu company.....and there are other companies around the globe oroducing......if you cant get something from your prefered supplier you go else or make it yourself
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And if it was that easy, don't you think we be doing that already ? And we've got Trump trade wars to come.
 
Docb said:
Trouble is @paultrose is that there is not a "huge" demand as such, just a vital need for those that need them. The effort needed to produce the small but vital quantities in UK is difficult to justify in the commercial terms demanded by governments and businesses.
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Part of that particular issue is due to companies needs to keep patents and profits. The older drugs which may still work very well for some individuals are no longer making the big profits, so tend to get discontinued as companies look for newer patentable and profitable drugs which may do pretty much the same thing as the older drugs.

Perhaps we need not for profit companies?
 
paultrose said:
Sorry but i disagree....a quuck goigle shows the big 3 companies have production facilitiez outside the eu......one of them isnt even a eu company.....and there are other companies around the globe oroducing......if you cant get something from your prefered supplier you go else or make it yourself
Click to expand...
We could presumably do more to encourage manufacturers to do some of their manufacturing in the UK, but they might decline. There are presumably economies of scale, particularly for things even less used than insulin. The EU is several times bigger than the UK, and it's very easy to move manufacturing materials (and people) between the countries and you can then easily sell the result across the whole block; that's no longer so practical in the UK.
 
paultrose said:
Brexit was 5 years ago......and like covid.....it needs to be stopped being used as an excuse for failings

Simple question.....if there is obviously a hugh demand for these drugs why isnt a pharma company in the uk making it?....why are we not importing it from a non eu country that makes them?
Click to expand...

It doesn't matter if it was 5 years ago. It's taken years to sort out the new processes, which caused some chaos, but now these processes have made it harder and more expensive to import (And export) to/from the EU by adding non-tariff barriers. More paperwork, different regulations since we are no longer in the EMA, both of which meant some companies stopped supplying to the UK as they have to go through two different regulators. We've also lost access to the EU R&D as well.
 
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paultrose said:
Brexit was 5 years ago......and like covid.....it needs to be stopped being used as an excuse for failings

Simple question.....if there is obviously a hugh demand for these drugs why isnt a pharma company in the uk making it?....why are we not importing it from a non eu country that makes them?
Click to expand...

Totally agree with above.
 
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