Following the parallel exporting exposé by the HSJ last month, a multi-agency plan to improve the drug shortages crisis has been issued by several parties which include the Department of Health, the RPSGB and the ABPI. In the past, the finger of blame for parallel trade has often been pointed squarely at the pharma industry. In response, the ABPI has been vocal in highlighting manufacturers are doing all they can and that better regulation is needed against exporting within the health service itself. So will these latest measures do the job?
At a first glance, the ‘tough’ measures seem pretty uncompromising. To start with, there are sanctions on manufacturers and new standards for wholesalers, doctors and pharmacists. Medicines in short supply will be regularly monitored. They also include targeted inspections for manufacturers, wholesalers and healthcare professionals. This means that if trading irresponsibly, manufacturers could lose their supply licences and HCPs could be called to account by their professional bodies for breaching their ethical obligation.
Though these regulations might work, the original problem arose due to the Department of Health sending mixed-messages to NHS trusts. Trusts were encouraged to be ‘entrepreneurial’ regarding budgets, but maintain a patient-centred focus regardless. The new guidelines reiterate the latter, although the scope of the measures does not extend to filling the budget deficits (quite rightly).
Some might say these are extensive measures that place little trust in the ability of organisations to behave ethically, and would the resource used not be better spent helping fix the deficits that are causing trusts to behave ‘entrepreneurially’ in the first place?
This is much easier said than done however, and for now the ‘tough’ measures are an essential way to protect medicines for UK patients. As Richard Barker of the ABPI comments, “getting vital medicines to NHS patients is the job of all of us”. And so it should remain so.
Tags: export, exporting, health policy, NHS