Supplies of generic medicines will be back to normal by spring next year, the managing director of Norton Healthcare Ltd (Mr Nick Foster) thinks.
Speaking at the Unichem convention in Malaysia on September 29, Mr Foster said that there was no single factor which had caused the current shortages in the market.
The patient pack initiative had caused many problems and this was exacerbated by Government inaction (under both the Conservatives and Labour). There had been a need to cope with the loss of products made by Regent Laboratories and the movement of manufacturing sites by Norton and APS/Berk.
However, the news for the future was better: the industry had resolved its manufacturing problems and Regent was expected to return to the market soon.
He had a tip for pharmacists concerned about stock shortages: do not stockpile bulk packs. He believed that the Department of Health was going to encourage the use of patient packs by reducing the Drug Tariff price for bulk packs.