Plans for stocking up on medicine in no-deal Brexit

The government will be conducting a procurement exercise to secure an ‘express freight service’ to transport small medical supply consignments into the UK within 24 hours if the UK leaves the EU without a deal.

This is designed to support the uninterrupted supply of medicines and medical products where there is an urgent need or where a suppliers’ own logistics plans are disrupted.

Additional plans are also being put in place for a freight capacity framework agreement that will provide government departments with the ability to secure freight capacity for critical supply chains as and when required.

This latest procurement activity forms part of the wider plan for minimising any supply disruption. As well as freight capacity, this includes the building up of buffer stocks across medicines; medical devices and clinical consumables; blood and transplants; vaccines and countermeasures; supplies for clinical trials and non-clinical goods and services.

It also includes additional warehouse space for stockpiled medicines, including ambient, refrigerated and controlled drug storage, and working with industry to improve trader readiness in preparation for new customs procedures.

There are also plans for changing or clarifying regulatory requirements so that companies can continue to sell their products in the UK if there is no deal.

These plans will be essential to the continuation of medicines and medical products if the UK leaves the EU without a deal.