EU rules on medicines coming in to NI 'costly and inefficient' and 'creating risk of further cliff edges,' committee hears

According to a House of Lords committee, evidence gathered from medical industry stakeholders shows that “significant issues remain unresolved” as we approach more deadlines for implementing EU legislation.

In a letter sent to Foreign Secretary, James Cleverly, the Lords European sub-Committee on the Protocol on Ireland/Northern Ireland said that the issues around medicines “must not be forgotten” as the current protocol negotiations between the UK and the EU reach their conclusion.

In a stark warning to the negotiators, the letter states: “It has been suggested that the EU legislation that came into force in April 2022 has resolved the problems with supply of medicines to Northern Ireland.

"However, the evidence we have received from industry stakeholders makes clear that this is far from the case. The provision of medicines to Northern Ireland (a significant majority of which are supplied from or via Great Britain) remains logistically complex, costly and inefficient.

"The impact has thus far fallen in particular on wholesale suppliers in terms of delivering product to Northern Ireland, and we were told that doctors and patients have largely been immune from the problems that have been encountered. Nevertheless, community pharmacists have reported increasing difficulty in sourcing medicines, and there is some evidence of delays in medicines reaching patients, as well as some products being replaced by generic medicines. Practitioners fear an interrupted supply of medicines if outstanding issues are not resolved.”

Sub-committee member Lord Empey, said it is “wrong for patients to be treated like chess pieces in political protocol game”.

The Ulster Unionist peer said: “The Committee decided to do follow up scrutiny of the provision of medicines to see how things were going after the EU Commission had changed EU legislation to make it easier for some EU members to access medicines which traditionally had come from the UK.

“The evidence we received was clear that this had helped the situation. There is, however, a public impression that the medicines issue has been resolved and the evidence we received from industry stakeholders contradicts this view, and made clear that this is far from the case.”

Lord Empey added: “We were first alerted to problems by former Health Minister Robin Swann, when he wrote to the Committee last year pointing out what his Department described as outstanding matters. This was strongly upheld by the evidence we received.

"The impact so far has fallen on the shoulders of the wholesale suppliers but it has not yet manifested itself to patients. The wholesalers made clear that the supply of medicines to NI was 'logistically complex, costly and inefficient’.

“The issues are also part of a wider impact of Brexit on supply chains, product testing and global supply chains. We were told that the Protocol offered 'no benefits compared to the situation before UK withdrawal from the EU’.

“We were advised that neither a dual regulatory regime or even removing medicines altogether from the scope of the Protocol was problem free.

“A mutual Recognition Agreement was supported by industry and we are asking James Cleverly if he is pursuing this with the Commission.”