UK Medicines Shortages: Supply, Demand and Danger

The weaknesses of the legal parallel drug trade in the EU have exposed again, as drug shortages threaten to hit the UK.  The weak pound is seemingly providing a temptation for wholesalers to make money by diverting UK drugs, bought at National Health Service-controlled prices, to other European markets where they can get a higher price.


The BBC reports a Royal Pharmaceutical Society call for action, which has oddly now been deleted from the RPS press releases page.  The UK Health Minister has condemned the resale of NHS drugs for higher prices abroad and has called an emergency summit for next month to discuss the issue.  The UK pharma trade body, the Association of British Pharmaceutical Industries, told the BBC that there is enough medicine to go round and distribution is to blame, although again no mention on theABPI press release page.
 
Supply and demand: the basis for all commerce. Unfortunately, if the drug shortage becomes a sustained issue then the UK will become a target for counterfeiters and criminals looking to make a quick buck by filling the hole.

Alli Money

The FDA issued a warning recently about fakes of the GSK weight loss product Alli in the US, apparently bought online.  The weight loss market is a prime target for counterfeiters because many people would prefer to buy online rather than have the embarrassment of a visit to the doctor.

It seems that the counterfeit product contains sibutramine, a potentially dangerous controlled substance.  The outer packaging of the fake Alli was pretty accurate, with only a couple of minor differences to the real thing: a missing lot code and a wrongly formatted expiry date. The other differences were a very slightly different thread on the bottle neck, and a different sealing foil. 

Only when the capsules are broken open does the difference become obvious to the casual observer - the GSK product has neat globules and the fake is powder.  How many of us would have spotted that? Most of the time we just swallow our pills or capsules without a second thought.

This incident highlights, once again, the need for vigilance in rooting out fake medicines.  If it looks wrong, or different from last time, take it back to your pharmacist or report it to the authorities.  FDA has a mechanism for doing just that on their website, as does MHRA in the UK.

And if you are thinking of buying medicines over the internet, my advice is simple. Don't.  There are some legitimate online pharmacies but they are heavily outnumbered by people who would sell you anything to make a buck.