Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the potential implications for his policies of difficulties faced by NHS patients in Somerset in receiving prescriptions of Creon.

The Department monitors and manages medicine supply at a national level so that stocks remain available to meet regional and local demand. We have not made an assessment of stock levels within Somerset specifically.

The Department has been working with suppliers, NHS England and national clinical specialists to address current supply issues with Creon, which is a brand of pancreatic enzyme replacement therapy (PERT). The supply issues with Creon are impacting countries throughout Europe and have been caused by limited availability of raw ingredients and manufacturing capacity constraints to produce volumes needed to meet demand. These issues have resulted in knock-on supply disruptions of alternative PERT medications.

The Department is continuing to work with all suppliers of PERT to help resolve the supply issues in the short and longer term by asking that they expedite deliveries, source stock from other markets and increase production. The Department has also been working with specialist importers of unlicensed medicine to ensure National Health Service patients can obtain unlicensed imports of PERT where appropriate to help mitigate this supply issue. Comprehensive guidance has been issued to the NHS and is being regularly reviewed and updated as the situation changes.