When a product is in seriously short supply, Pharmacies will get their hands on any stock they can to satisfy their customers. This sometimes means that they have to get short dated stock. If they have no long dated alternative, short dated will have to do. The presence of short dated stock in the market gives us a clue about the availability or shortage of that particular product. If short dated is being offered for sale, it probably means that there’s plenty of stock around. If there was very little stock on the shelves anywhere, the chances are that short dated products would have vanished very quickly.
Pharmacies would’ve phoned the wholesaler and said, ‘If you’ve got any stock at all send it to me now, I have patients waiting.’
If you agree with my logic, then looking at the graph gives us a clue about the general state of shortages in the UK generic market year on year. So for the period between 2009 and 2020 there was quite a lot of short date stock available. But since then there has been a steady reduction in the availability of short dated stock.
We believe this links back to reductions in the Drug Tariff prices particularly for Category M lines, and the squeeze that has been put on Pharmacies to reduce costs. In the period after Brexit it has been considerably more difficult to raise tax revenues from companies selling products to the EU. Selling anything to the EU is now very hard work, with mountains of extra paperwork and bureaucracy.
This shortage of tax revenue has put pressure on Pharmacies through the Drug Tariff, resulting in a fallout of unprofitable products, and the closure of Pharmacies. Unfortunately, for many of us taking back control has led to the question, ‘Where’s my Pharmacy gone?’