Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will respond to the request from the Epilepsy Society for an urgent review of the medicines supply chain.

The Department fully understands that maintaining access to epilepsy medications is vitally important to many people in this country.

The production of medicines is complex and must meet rigorous quality and safety standards. Disruption to the medicines supply chain is rare, but can occur due to manufacturing issues, supply of raw materials or batch failures.

The Department has well established processes to monitor the medicines supply chain, and to manage and mitigate the small number of supply problems that may arise at any one time. In addition, from January this year, it became a legal requirement for pharmaceutical companies to report this information to us in a timely manner. The new requirements aim to address the ongoing concerns about medicine supply issues and to ensure that the Department has relevant information at the earliest point possible to help manage supply shortages and mitigate any potential impacts on patients.

The Department responded to concerns over medicines used in epilepsy by seeking specialist advice to develop a clinical management plan. The clinical management plan aims to ensure treatment for affected patients can be managed appropriately in the unlikely event of any disruption to supply. We communicated information about the supply issue and clinical management plan to the National Health Service and affected patients via patient groups.

We continue to work closely with industry and partners in the health system to help prevent shortages and to ensure that the risks to patients are minimised when supply issues do arise.