Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether the Government plans to meet the potential increase in costs of animal medicines after 1 January 2021.

The Veterinary Medicines Directorate (VMD) – the UK regulator of veterinary medicines – charges fees for authorising applications from companies for marketing authorisations for veterinary medicines on a cost recovery basis. From 1 January 2021 the VMD’s fees will continue to apply for each GB and NI veterinary medicine marketing authorisation. To minimise the regulatory costs to industry and avoid any consequential price increases to UK consumers, we continue to explore opportunities to introduce fee reductions wherever possible.

The prices of veterinary medicines are a commercial consideration for the private veterinary pharmaceutical industry who manufacture and market these medicines, as well as for retailers. The Government has no influence over the price of UK medicines and there will be no extra costs associated with the Government’s regulation of veterinary medicines.