One in 10 pharmacies illicitly selling NHS drugs abroad

By Andrew Hough Published: 8:00AM GMT 20 Feb 2010

High street pharmacists are able to buy life-saving drugs at discounted rates negotiated by the NHS. Photo: AFP

A growing number of pharmacies as well as wholesalers, dispensing doctors and some NHS hospitals are profiting from the multi-million pound export trade, the research claimed.

The practice, which the government says is unethical, has lead to a shortage of about 40 drugs including treatment for cancer, high blood pressure, Parkinson"s and high cholesterol.

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The latest figures come after The Daily Telegraph disclosed last month that patients lives were being put at risk because pharmacies were illicitly selling NHS drugs to the Continent, leading to shortages in this country.

The trade, estimated to be worth about £30 million a month, has been made worse by favourable exchange rates which make British medicines cheaper for customers paying in euros.

Among some of the high-profile drugs that are experiencing a shortage include Arimidex and Femara, which are both used for breast cancer, Actonel tablets, for osteoporosis and cholesterol-lowering statins.

High street pharmacies are able to buy life-saving drugs at discounted rates negotiated by the NHS.

However, supplies are limited and stocks are being sold on the black market in European countries including Germany.

European trade legislation means that selling medicines is not technically against the law, but because drug manufacturers carefully ration the level of supplies they sell to individual chemists, the result is a growing shortage of drug

New research by IMS, a consultancy firm, suggests that as many as 11 per cent of the 12,600 UK pharmacies could be exporting drugs, along with a small proportion of dispensing doctors and some wholesalers.

Figures from the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency, the body which grants EU export licences, show almost twice as many were granted this year.

More than 200 new licences were issued last year, bringing the total to almost 1400, 1,357, double what were approved the previous year.

This year, more than 100 applications have been approved for the licence, which costs £1,737.

Government guidance says the trade is unethical but ministers are powerless to stop it because it is legal for drugs to be traded into Britain from within the EU.

Mike O"Brien, the Minister of State for Health, has previously told The Daily Telegraph that ministers were becoming increasingly concerned that patients may die unless pharmacies stop this "unscrupulous" practise.

He has called a summit of those involved in the supply chain early next month.

Sandy Craine, founder of the CML Support Group UK, said: "This is a big problem and it needs to be sorted urgently."

John Turk, chief executive of the National Pharmacy Association, denied pharmacists were "cashing in".

"The vast majority of community pharmacists have nothing to do with exporting medicines," he said.

"In the face of shortages, they are putting in hours of extra work each day sourcing medicines to ensure timely supply to patients."

Neil Paton of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society said he "did not recognise" the figure of one in ten pharmacies trading abroad.

A spokesman for the Department of Health told the Daily Mail that the legal and ethical duties of ensuring a "smooth supply" of NHS medicines had been made clear to the industry.