MHRA Blocks 135 Drugs From Parallel Export
As drug shortage questions and increasing demands loom amid the coronvirus pandemic, the UK’s Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) this month added 135 medicines to its list of medicines that cannot be parallel exported from the UK.Parallel exporting means buying medicines already on the market in the UK and selling them in another country in the European Economic Area.
Beginning on 13 March, MHRA added hydroxychloroquine, a possible COVID-19 treatment, to its list, and then a week later, MHRA added 82 more medicines, including the antibiotics amoxicillin and levofloxacin, as well as the pain drugs oxycodone and fentanyl, and other common medicines like paracetamol and insulin.
On Tuesday, MHRA added another 52 new medicines to the list, including different insulins like insulin degludec and insulin aspart, as well as different combinations of medicines with fluticasone, which can be used in asthma treatments. Codeine and doxycycline were also added.
“Parallel export of a medicine on the list is considered a breach of regulation 43(2) of the Human Medicines Regulations 2012 and a contravention of the wholesale dealer licence and may lead to regulatory action by the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA), which could include immediate suspension of the wholesale dealer licence,” MHRA said.
MHRA is not alone in wanting to conserve medicine supplies for those within its borders. Earlier this month, India halted the export of certain active pharmaceutical ingredients and drugs.
List of medicines that cannot be parallel exported from the UK