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<p>The Department has well-established procedures to deal with medicine shortages
and works closely with the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency, the
pharmaceutical industry, NHS England and others operating in the supply chain to help
prevent shortages and to ensure that the risks to patients are minimised when shortages
do arise.</p><p>We are aware of a current supply issue with generic lamotrigine 5mg
dispersible tablets for epilepsy. We have issued comprehensive management guidance
to the National Health Service highlighting the availability of alternative products.</p><p>There
have been issues with the supply of a limited number of hormone replacement therapy
(HRT) products, primarily due to very sharp increases in demand, but the supply position
for many of those products has improved considerably over the last year. Only one
of the 23 Serious Shortage Protocols issued since April 2022 remains in place. We
continue to engage with suppliers individually to address these issues and improve
resilience in the short, medium and long term. We are also holding quarterly roundtables
with manufacturers, wholesalers and community pharmacists to monitor progress and
agree what more needs to be done to ensure supply is sufficient to meet demand. The
eighth HRT supply roundtable is expected to be held in January 2024.</p><p>We are
aware of disruptions to the global supply of medicines used for the management of
attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Some issues are now resolving. However,
we know that there are currently disruptions to the supply of some other medicines,
primarily driven by issues which have resulted in capacity constraints at key manufacturing
sites. We are working intensively with the respective manufacturers to resolve the
issues as soon as possible and to ensure patients have continuous access to ADHD medicines
in the United Kingdom, in the short and long term.</p>
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