The Department of Health and Social Care has issued a national patient safety alert over shortages of antimicrobial medicines used in the treatment of tuberculosis (TB).

The alert warns that multiple rifampicin-containing medicines and other TB drugs will be intermittently unavailable until at least the end of 2025, due to a combination of supply chain issues. The affected drugs are:

  • Rifampicin 150mg and 300mg capsules
  • Rifampicin 600mg IV solution for infusion
  • Rifampicin 100mg/5ml oral suspension
  • Rifinah 300 tablets (rifampicin 300mg / isoniazid 150mg)
  • Rifater tablets (rifampicin 120mg / isoniazid 50mg / pyrazinamide 300mg)
  • Voractiv tablets (rifampicin 150mg / isoniazid 75mg / pyrazinamide 400mg / ethambutol 275mg)
  • Pyrazinamide 500mg tablets

Sanofi, in agreement with NHS England, is currently allocating remaining licensed stock to ensure equitable access, requiring prescription verification prior to release.

Other TB treatments – including isoniazid, ethambutol, and Mycobutin (rifabutin) – remain available but cannot meet increased demand.

Primary care clinicians have been instructed not to prescribe rifampicin until supply issues have been resolved.

Prescribers are to limit prescriptions of affected oral anti-TB medicines to a maximum of one month’s supply, and amend prescriptions where necessary to prevent treatment delays.

In urgent scenarios, mutual aid between provider trusts can be arranged via the Specialist Pharmacy Service’s regional procurement teams.

Patients should be informed of any changes to their medication and supported with multilingual communications where appropriate.