Further provides of hormone substitute remedy merchandise may very well be shipped to the UK from France and Poland as quickly as subsequent week, a serious producer has stated after disaster conferences had been held to handle the nationwide scarcity.
Tina Backhouse, the final UK supervisor at Theramex, which makes a couple of dozen HRT medication, together with Bijuva drugs and Femseven patches, stated the corporate wanted particular permission to usher in merchandise from France that weren’t licensed within the UK. Theramex’s merchandise are primarily made in Germany, and a few are solely licensed in different European international locations.
Backhouse met the UK’s newly appointed HRT tsar, Madelaine McTernan, and the Medicines and Healthcare merchandise Regulatory Company this week and expects to acquire consent after an extra assembly with the company on Monday.
“We’re working with MHRA to get particular permission. It’s not an uncommon factor, different corporations do it,” she stated. “I don’t assume it will likely be lengthy, we’ve received it [the stock] prepared.”
Theramex, a non-public equity-owned pharmaceutical agency primarily based in London, can be getting ready to usher in HRT patches from Poland, that are licensed within the UK however want English labels.
“We’re searching for short-term options in addition to longer-term options when it comes to bringing different merchandise from different international locations in,” Backhouse stated.
The UK seems to be the one nation with a scarcity of HRT merchandise. It was triggered by a surge in demand after the TV presenters Davina McCall and Mariella Frostrup spoke about their menopause experiences.
Besins Healthcare, a privately owned agency primarily based in Brussels which makes the preferred oestrogen gel product, stated on Thursday that it was “taking a look at all choices for growing short-term provides of Oestrogel into the UK”.
The British Menopause Society and HRT producers are calling for different measures, together with a nationwide record or “formulary” of permitted HRT medicines that may permit all docs and pharmacists to prescribe whichever merchandise can be found.
When native scientific commissioning teams had been created in England in 2013, many beforehand national-level choice making and budgetary powers handed to them. This implies there may be delays in sure areas of the nation when new medication are licensed.
Backhouse stated: “We’ve model new merchandise on this nation which can be licensed however aren’t getting used due to formulary restrictions. At this stage absolutely we should always have a nationwide formulary of HRTs which can be obtainable and in inventory, moderately than ready for each particular person locality to do this. It will be really easy to do.”
She stated Theramex had a brand new MHRA-approved product that was solely being prescribed in three areas, or used privately by ladies paying for it themselves.
The Nationwide Pharmacy Affiliation has additionally lobbied for pharmacists’ to have the ability to vary prescriptions made by GPs when sure merchandise will not be obtainable.
