Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he has made an assessment of the potential impact of hoarding in the global manufacturing supply chain of antibiotics on the prices of antibiotics in the UK.

No assessment has been made. Since 2019, the Government has restricted the export and hoarding of some medicines already placed on the United Kingdom market where there is evidence of a critical shortage, or a risk of a critical shortage, which could adversely impact UK patients.

For unbranded generic medicines the Department relies on competition to keep prices down. This has led to some of the lowest prices in Europe and allows prices to react to the market. In an international market this ensures that when demand is high and supply is low, prices in the UK can increase to help secure the availability of medicines for UK patients. Branded medicines spend is controlled through the Branded Health Service Medicines (Costs) Regulations 2018 and the 2019 voluntary scheme for branded medicines pricing and access.

In the UK, anti-competitive behaviour, including hoarding, is a matter for the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA). The Department asks the CMA to investigate where it has concerns about abuses of competition law for generic medicines and where companies are found by the CMA to be in breach of the legislation, the Department will seek damages and invest that money back into the National Health Service.