{"id":361318,"date":"2026-04-03T03:38:12","date_gmt":"2026-04-03T03:38:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/361318\/"},"modified":"2026-04-03T03:38:12","modified_gmt":"2026-04-03T03:38:12","slug":"uk-faces-shortage-of-4-common-medicines-in-days-full-list","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/361318\/","title":{"rendered":"UK faces shortage of 4 common medicines ‘in days’ – full list"},"content":{"rendered":"

Common drugs and medicines could run out in \u201cdays or weeks\u201d as the Middle East war continues\"UK<\/p>\n

UK faces shortage of 4 common medicines ‘in days’ – full list<\/p>\n

The UK faces running out of four common medications “in days”, experts have warned, as bosses panic over a “serious risk” to the country’s drugs supply.<\/p>\n

Common drugs and medicines could run out in \u201cdays or weeks\u201d as the Middle East war continues. The continued conflict \u201cposes a significant risk to future UK medicine supplies\u201d, experts said.<\/p>\n

The Labour Party<\/a> government has said \u201cthere are currently no shortages of medical products or medicines reported as a result of conflict in the Middle East\u201d. But experts have issued a warning over: Efudix, Creon, Bendamustine, and Fluorouracil.<\/p>\n

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Dr Leyla Hannbeck, CEO of Independent Pharmacies Association, said: \u201cIn addition to Efudix, Creon \u2013 for pancreatic cancer \u2013 has been in short supply for a long time and has been rationed.”<\/p>\n

She told The Sun: \u201cBendamustine, Fluorouracil and several other chemotherapy medicines are in short supply at the moment.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe expect this to get worse in the coming days or weeks unless the government gets its plans together.\u201d<\/p>\n

Henry Gregg, chief executive of the National Pharmacy Association said: \u201cWe\u2019re not currently seeing shortages of medicine directly linked to the conflict in the Middle East, but pharmacies are seeing disturbing spikes in prices which can be an early indicator of challenges.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Department of Health has issued unprecedented numbers of price concessions designed to cope with price surges, which are likely exacerbated by this current situation.\u201d<\/p>\n

Henry added: \u201cIt\u2019s clear that medicine prices are soaring for pharmacies, as this crisis unfolds with the government issuing an unprecedented number of price concessions in an attempt to cover the growing price of many essential medicines.<\/p>\n

\u201cGovernment price concessions are 120 per cent higher than they were at the same time last year.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe expect this continue if this situation is prolonged, if the cost of raw materials and other aspects of the manufacturing process increases.<\/p>\n

\u201cPharmacies are already facing a medicine supply crisis before the conflict started, and although we are not currently seeing a direct impact on supplies we have been warning for years of growing issues in an increasingly fragile supply chain.\u201d<\/p>\n

A Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson said: \u201cWe are working closely with industry partners to help ensure the continued supply of medical products, and we actively monitor emerging threats to supply resilience.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are established processes in place to manage disruption across the health and social care sector, including holding significant buffer stocks and the procurement of alternative products where necessary.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Common drugs and medicines could run out in \u201cdays or weeks\u201d as the Middle East war continues UK…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":361319,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[134,524,111,139,1374,69],"class_list":{"0":"post-361318","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-medication","8":"tag-health","9":"tag-medication","10":"tag-new-zealand","11":"tag-newzealand","12":"tag-nhs","13":"tag-nz"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/361318","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=361318"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/361318\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/361319"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=361318"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=361318"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=361318"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}