Cancer patients across the United Kingdom are already going without vital medicines as the Iran war drives up drug prices and disrupts supply chains, with pharmacists warning the situation could deteriorate sharply in the weeks ahead.
Research shared with The Telegraph by the National Pharmacy Association, drawn from 400 pharmacies across the country, found that every single one had experienced price increases on commonly prescribed medicines since the conflict began. Some drugs have risen in price by as much as eleven times their previous cost since February, leaving pharmacies losing millions of pounds every month because NHS reimbursement rates have not kept pace.
The crisis is hitting cancer patients particularly hard. Pharmacists have flagged serious shortages of a number of cancer treatments, including Creon, used by patients with pancreatic cancer, and Efudix, a topical chemotherapy cream that targets cancerous and precancerous cells on the skin. A shortage of an intravenous cancer drug licensed as Endoxan, Sendoxan and Genoxal has already been confirmed by regulators following a production halt at a major manufacturing plant — a warning, experts say, of just how reliant the health system has become on a small number of global suppliers.
The financial scale of the pressure is significant. The price of bisoprolol, one of the most widely prescribed drugs for high blood pressure and heart conditions, has risen from 36p to £3.95 for a pack of capsules — an almost eleven-fold increase since February. Carvedilol, another heart medication, has jumped from 60p to £3.89. The NPA estimates pharmacies are losing more than £5 million a month on bisoprolol alone, with a further £2 million monthly lost on blood pressure drug nifedipine. On Thursday, the Department of Health issued a serious shortage protocol for ramipril — prescribed around three million times a month — limiting patients to one month’s supply at a time, though many pharmacists say even that cannot be reliably obtained.
Mark Samuels, chief executive of Medicines UK, which represents manufacturers supplying most NHS prescriptions, told The Telegraph that transport costs had surged by up to 300 per cent and warned that shortages, price rises or both were “increasingly likely in the weeks ahead.” He noted that raw materials used in drug manufacturing relied heavily on petrochemicals affected by the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, while rising fossil fuel costs were pushing up manufacturing expenses across the board.
Olivier Picard, chairman of the NPA, said pharmacists were “alarmed” by warnings from manufacturers that shortages would become inevitable if the conflict and blockade continued. “Medicine shortages have already become commonplace in recent years — regardless of the war in the Middle East — and we are concerned by anything that may exacerbate an already challenging situation,” he said.
The NHS chief, Sir Jim Mackey, acknowledged the full breadth of the risk last month, saying that in terms of what was at risk from potential supply failures: “Well, everything, honestly — everything’s at risk.” He warned that while the health service held enough stock in most areas to cover a few weeks, some products could run out within days.
The UK imports around three-quarters of its medicines, and many drugs sourced from Europe or closer markets are still manufactured from raw materials shipped from China or India — meaning the supply chain is considerably more exposed than the geography of procurement alone might suggest.
The Department of Health and NHS England were approached for comment.
