Medicine shortages are a ‘national security issue’ says Lords committee

Medicine supply shortages should be treated as a national security issue given the risk they pose to health, a House of Lords committee report has found.

Medicines security - a national priority, a report from House of Lords Public Services found that the government does not effectively communicate shortages, or solutions, to frontline staff such as community pharmacists and GPs.

It said: ‘Currently, community pharmacies and hospitals may only discover a medicine shortage is occurring when they are unable to order medicines for patients, and shortages create extra pressure and work for clinicians trying to support patients, both through sourcing medicines and providing alternatives.’

The report also said the government is not proactive in protecting the UK from fragile supply chains and acted once shortages had already occurred.

It cited a 2025 survey by Community Pharmacy England (CPE), which found that 73% of 1,600 pharmacy workers stated ongoing issues with medicines supply were putting patients at risk.

The report noted that four out of five (80%) prescribed medicines used by the NHS are generic and therefore can be made by any manufacturer. Yet it said only a quarter of these drugs are made in the UK, with the rest produced largely in Europe and Asia.

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It also warned that many active ingredients required for NHS medicines are controlled by China and India or other single sources. This left UK patients at risk from reliance on fragile global supply chains, which can be affected by changes in geopolitics, trade or national disasters.

The UK needed to work with international partners to develop a range of medicines resilience measures, it continued.

Baroness Morris of Yardley, who chaired the committee during the inquiry, said: ‘We tend to only think of medicines and medicine supply when we are ill and need access to medication via our GPs, hospitals or pharmacies. However, the issue is of great importance because of the risk to people’s health and wellbeing if medicine shortages occur.

'The Department of Health and Social Care are not particularly proactive in tackling these issues. There is a general lack of oversight and leadership to address current shortcomings across the medicines supply and manufacturing process.’

She said medicines supply chain resilience is a ‘national security issue’ that requires cross-departmental oversight by the government.

She urged the government to boost manufacturing within the UK to reduce the country’s reliance on single-source supplies.

‘Government needs to consider compiling a Critical Medicines List and then look at how we can increase the UK manufacture of the medicines on that list and shore up our resilience and stockpiling based on it,’ she said.

President of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society, Professor Claire Anderson, welcomed the call for medicines security to be viewed as a national security issue and urged the government to act on the recommendations.

'Today’s report is a stark warning about the continued impact of medicines supply issues on both patients and health professionals...this report highlights key measures to improve UK medicines supply chain resilience.

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'We have seen some positive steps, including the consultation on enabling pharmacists to better manage medicines shortages, and the Government should not delay on implementing these changes.

'Medicines are a cornerstone of NHS care. We were pleased to give evidence to the inquiry and I welcome the Committee’s call for medicines security to be viewed as a national security issue.'

Company Chemists’ Association's (CCA), head of policy, Dr Nick Thayer, said: '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.'

The Lords committee launched the inquiry into medicines security by publishing a call for evidence on 5 August 2025.

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One of the case studies examined by the committee was the ongoing shortage of Creon, a Pancreatic Enzyme Replacement Therapy (PERT) medication. The report said the shortage, which is caused by limited availability of a pancreatic enzyme used to make the drug, was expected to continue until at least 2027.

The committee heard from CPE’s director of research and insights, James Davies, that medicine shortages were ‘certainly having more of an impact on patients than it ever has before.’

And Pharmacy2U reported that, since June 2023, up to 10% of orders where the prescription ‘could not be fulfilled in its entirety’ was due to shortages of one or more prescribed medicines.