Medicines manufacturers (marketing authorisation holders) are expected to be fully accountable for their supply chain to the UK market and required to understand the potential impact on UK patients should supplies of their products become unavailable.

This is according to new Department of Health reporting requirements for medicines shortages and discontinuations that have been agreed with the ABPI and the BGMA. The new mandatory requirements, under Part 6 of the Health Service Products (Provision and Disclosure of Information) Regulations 2018, replace the previous voluntary arrangements