Few of the recipients of the millions of prescriptions dispensed every day across Britain are likely to give much thought to the system that ensures everything from painkillers to niche medicines are available.
Beyond the pharmacist’s counter, however, lies a network spanning national borders andcontinents and involving multiple supply chains.
It all works so smoothly because of the incentives and obligations that are in place, said one industry insider. What will be really interesting to see is what happens when it comes under pressure.
At a very basic level there are two kinds of drugs: branded and generic. Household names such as Glaxosmithkline and Pfizer make their money from effectively inventing new medicines and receiving a patent on them for 20-odd years. Prices come down a lot when the patent expires and other manufacturers come in to produce copies. Eighty per cent of prescriptions written are for generics.
Crucial to both categories of drugs are the active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs). These are largely made in places such as India and China, so even if medications are manufactured here, the chances are that the APIs will have been brought in from abroad.
Independent pharmacies of the type run by Burdon typically get multiple deliveries each day from several suppliers. “It’s based on quite thin margins, so if you dispense one pack of something then you reorder another. You can imagine how the ripples could be felt from, say, any sort of problems at ports. A minor delay would really be felt down the line.”
Burdon is most worried about the supply of items such as anti-psychotic medications and anti-depressants. Unlike painkillers and anti-inflammatory drugs these cannot often be easily substituted with a generic alternative.