For anyone who relies on medication to treat a health condition, a shortage will be unwelcome. In some cases, for example cough and cold remedies, this will be a worrying inconvenience. But in others, such as HRT, diabetes drugs, antibiotics and antipsychotics, there are serious implications for health and wellbeing. In extreme circumstances the lack of a drug could pose a threat to life. Most recently the alarm has been raised in relation to riluzole, a medicine used by sufferers from motor neurone disease to delay ventilator dependence and prolong life.
Worryingly, the Motor Neurone Disease Association claims that concerns raised with the health secretary, Victoria Atkins, and her department, have not been properly dealt with. Riluzole’s manufacturer, Glenmark, has pointed to competing demands for limited stock of its active ingredient. That sufferers of such serious illnesses are facing these problems is obviously concerning. With around 100 medicines on a shortages list, the government appears under‑prepared and slow to act.
