NHS could face drug shortages within weeks, medicine manufacturers warn

The NHS faces drug shortages within weeks if the US and Iran do not strike a deal to end the conflict in the Middle East, drug makers have warned.

Paracetamol, antibiotics, stroke prevention medicines and even some cancer drugs, which represent 85% of all NHS prescriptions, may be in short supply as early as June, according to Medicines UK.

The company told The Telegraph it was “increasingly concerned that some chemicals and solvents used to manufacture active pharmaceutical ingredients are now in very short supply”.

Medicines that contain paracetamol and aspirin are thought to be the most at risk because they are manufactured using by-products from the petrochemical industry, which has been affected by Tehran’s blockade of the Strait of Hormuz.

The shortages may make it harder to fulfil patients’ prescriptions or make it more expensive for health services to source the medicines, the regulator warned.

Richard Sullivan, professor of cancer and global health at King’s College London, warned there was a shortage of cancer drugs. He told The British Medical Journal that “disruption in supply chains for cancer drugs and consumables for robotic surgery, which uses up an awful lot of equipment every time you operate on somebody”.

Dr Leyla Hannbeck, CEO of the Independent Pharmacies Association, explained that a significant proportion of pharmaceuticals rely on petroleum-derived inputs, which are used in many common medicines, from antibiotics to pain relief and chronic disease treatments.

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Source: The Independent, 16 April 2026

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