The House of Lords Public Services Committee has published its report, ‘Medicines Security – a national priority’ which recommends that medicine shortages be treated as a national security issue. It also recommends that supply notifications be issued to pharmacies in a timelier manner, and mandatory use of 2D barcoding. Our Chief Executive, Malcolm Harrison, gave evidence to the Committee on 5th November.
Commenting, Dr Nick Thayer, Head of Policy, Company Chemists’ Association said:“Community pharmacies buy and dispense over 1.15 billion NHS-prescribed items each year.
Shortages directly impact patients and take pharmacy teams away from providing vital NHS care.
The competitive buying of medicines by community pharmacy has successfully driven down prices for many years, saving taxpayers billions, but prices have now hit rock bottom.
Around 80% of all NHS-prescribed medicines are generics and the price the government pays for these medicines, set out in the drug tariff, is too low. Unfortunately, this makes the UK a less attractive market to global manufacturers and suppliers, leading to less competition.
We urgently need the government to invest in both community pharmacy funding and medicine pricing to make the UK more attractive, and the supply chain more resilient. I am pleased to see, following our Chief Executive providing evidence directly to the committee, that several of our recommendations have been included in the report.
The CCA recently convened a Medicines Supply Resilience Group (MSRG) to bring together stakeholders from across the entire supply chain – to consider further ways to increase resilience. We look forward to working with the Department and NHS to co-design solutions which help ensure a consistent and reliable supply of medicines to patients”.
Notes to editors
- The CCA co-signed a joint letter to the Committee urging the government to invest in community pharmacy funding and Drug Tariff pricing – see here (5th December 2025).
- Malcolm Harrison, Chief Executive of the CCA gave evidence to the Lords Public Services Committee on 5th November – see transcript here.
- A March 2025 report by the CCA found that the longstanding drive to save money on the medicines bill is leading to avoidable medicine shortages and harm to patients, as well as inflated prices thereafter to secure the supply of those medicines – see here.