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Statement on disruption to supply of generic medicines and concessionary pricing

Warwick Smith, Director General of Medicines UK, said:

"There have been disruptions to the supply of a number of generic medicines due to production issues that have impacted a small number of manufacturers.

Other generic medicines manufacturers have increased their production of the affected products or have entered or re-entered the market in them.

The industry's focus has rightly been on ensuring continuity of supply to the greatest extent possible in the interest of patients. Production changes such as this, however, inevitably incur additional costs and the prices of these products have increased.

To reflect higher costs incurred by community pharmacists, the Department of Health sets so-called concessionary prices for these products based on surveys of actual selling prices in the market.

A survey of our members shows that the concessionary price set of these products in October were on average 2½ times actual prices charged by manufacturers."