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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
Click to expand...
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.
Click to expand...
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.
 
I don't think it's really about placing blame but finding the best way forward. It does however absolutely amaze me that we have Mr Farage who.....

Made Brexit his key target for many years, with latest figures saying his success is costing the country £37bn pa. (https://www.independent.co.uk/news/...k-business-labour-trade-billion-b2719830.html)

Was very keen for the nation to block any kind of foreign influence, before demonstrating an astonishing level of hypocrisy by getting heavily involved in US Politics.

And then going along with the increasing influence of fascists in the US.

Any one of those three things would stop me voting for his party, but he is now favourite to be the PM after Starmer. Can anyone explain how that makes sense?
 
We make political decisions, and some of those have affected how we get our meds.
It could be argued that Brexit has never been implemented properly since we left, as there is no political will to do it properly, and too many people with vested interest in the status quo.
It could also be argued that many of the publics frustrations regarding Brexit( and other areas) have made it easier for the likes of Reform to gain traction and the possibility of a Farage PM.
Of course there are counter arguments too.
Just my 2c worth.....
 
pjgtech said:
We make political decisions, and some of those have affected how we get our meds.
It could be argued that Brexit has never been implemented properly since we left, as there is no political will to do it properly, and too many people with vested interest in the status quo.
It could also be argued that many of the publics frustrations regarding Brexit( and other areas) have made it easier for the likes of Reform to gain traction and the possibility of a Farage PM.
Of course there are counter arguments too.
Just my 2c worth.....
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We left the EU. How can it not 'have been implemented properly'?
The question was simple, you're either in or out. We are no longer in it. I don't remember seeing anything else on the ballot paper.

This is just an excuse used by Brexit voters when it became clear the much touted benefits never really came to fruition.
 
pjgtech said:
It could be argued that Brexit has never been implemented properly since we left, as there is no political will to do it properly.....
Click to expand...

That idea really doesn't hold water. Jacob Rees-Mogg - hardly a man you could accuse of being in two minds about Brexit - had an entire government department at his disposal from February to September in 2022 with their sole job to find some advantages of Brexit. He couldn't find anything. And it wasn't a case of "Well, we could do this if <insert problem here> could be sorted out", it was just that there was nothing to find.

It could also be argued that many of the publics frustrations regarding Brexit( and other areas) have made it easier for the likes of Reform to gain traction and the possibility of a Farage PM.
Click to expand...

So people are so frustrated by Brexit being a disaster that they're going to vote for the main cheerleader? Doesn't make sense to me. And that's without taking into account the hypocrisy and fascism.
 
We used to have a little business doing repairs for knitting machines, and our 'market' was all of Europe.
People would come to visit and we could post things back home for them, or it could be posted coming and going.
Suddenly there were taxes and fees to pay, travel was no longer so easy, it was more cost effective to buy another machine than to have a repair done.
End of business and income.
 
One of my things is selling handmade linocut prints made from my late wife’s lovely designs. Very popular, and I’d send to countrues across Europe frequently.

Under new regulations I need an official representative within the EU to complete paperwork for product safety, traceability etc. I cannot be that person, because we aren’t in the EU. The cost of employing such a person within the EU is prohibitive.

So I can no longer sell to European countries. Or even Northern Ireland, where those regulations also apply.

Just one small example of how Brexit has had measurable negative impacts on small businesses.
 
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