Research and analysis

Managing a robust and resilient supply of medicines: data pack

Published 11 August 2025

Applies to England

Introduction 

This is an ad-hoc publication of the data underlying the policy paper Managing a robust and resilient supply of medicines.

The policy paper covers:

  • how we manage medicines supply issues
  • what we understand about the supply chain
  • how we plan to strengthen our approach to resilience of medicines supply chains
  • annual trends and drivers of UK medicines supply issues

The policy paper has 3 main objectives:

  • transparency: to provide greater transparency of the supply chains we rely on and the actions government take to protect patients from medicines shortages when they occur
  • resilience: to outline the steps we plan to take to further enhance our processes for mitigating medicine shortages and to strengthen long-term resilience
  • partnership: to invite all partners across the health system and medicines supply chain to continue to work with government and the NHS to co-design and deliver the changes needed to ensure a consistent and reliable supply of medicines to patients

This accompanying data pack includes data covering:

  • UK licensed medicines by legal status type
  • Discontinuations and Shortages (DaSH) portal notifications
  • risk ‘tiering’ of DaSH notifications
  • Medicine Supply Notifications (MSNs)
  • root causes of UK supply issues

Increasing resilience of UK medicines supply chains remains a priority for the government. This spans activity within the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) and NHS England but also areas of trade, international co-operation and industrial strategy. Robust supply chains are an important underpinning of the government’s growth and health missions.

A wide range of people and organisations are impacted by the stability and reliability of the supply of medicines. Therefore, the policy paper and this accompanying data pack are aimed at a broad audience, including all those operating across the supply chain and in the provision of care to patients and patient groups.

UK medicines supply chain data

Many patients access medicines either in a primary care setting (for example, a community pharmacy) or a secondary care setting (for example, a hospital). Some medicines can also be accessed through online pharmacies and other retailers (for example, supermarkets).

Licencing data from the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) for 2022 shows that around 80% of licensed medicines on the UK market are prescription only medicines (POM), so require a prescription and must be dispensed by an appropriate practitioner. The remaining approximately 20% of licensed medicines on the UK market can either be a pharmacy (P) medicine (for example, purchased over the pharmacy counter) or a general sale list (GSL) medicine (for example, purchased at a supermarket). The exact breakdown is in table 1.

Table 1: breakdown of UK licensed medicines by legal status type

Legal status type Number of products Percentage of products
GSL 1,499 11%
P 1,111 8%
POM 11,066 81%
Total 13,676 100%

Source: MHRA licensing data, 2022.

MHRA data: information, coverage and caveats

Medicines are supplied by companies that hold licences for the demonstration of their quality, safety and efficacy - namely, the marketing authorisation holders (MAHs). MAHs are regulated to apply for licences from MHRA for medicines on the UK market.

Each product in the licensing data refers to a specific medicine being licensed for production by a specific MAH. For example, ‘MAH#1, paracetamol 500mg tables’ is counted as a different product from ‘MAH#2, paracetamol 500mg tablets’. Each product, therefore, has its own licensing information associated with it.

The data provides no indication of volumes, only the number of products licensed on the UK market and the sites associated with them.

Number of Discontinuations and Shortages (DaSH) portal notifications

The primary route for DHSC becoming aware of a medicines supply issue or discontinuation is a formal notification from pharmaceutical suppliers on the department’s online reporting tool, known as the DaSH portal, which was launched in October 2020. This formal reporting mechanism allows suppliers of medicines supplied to the NHS to fulfil their statutory requirement to inform DHSC of any supply disruptions (including supply issues or discontinuations).

There have been almost 10,300 potential medicines supply disruption notifications reported to DHSC from when the DaSH portal was operationalised in late 2020 to the end of June 2025 (this includes over 7,400 supply issue notifications and over 2,800 discontinuation notifications). 

The number of supply issue notifications increased in 2024 to over 1,900, which is approximately 20% higher than 2022 and 2023 when the rate of notifications remained relatively stable, at around 1,600 notifications per year. However, to date in 2025 the number of notifications has been lower than in 2024, closer to 2023 levels. These numbers are subject to varying factors over time including increased familiarity with the DaSH portal across suppliers and behavioural differences in when suppliers report issues to DHSC.

Since 2022, discontinuation notifications have remained stable at around 400 per year, though it should be noted that the total number of medicines licensed in the UK has remained stable as new medicines are launched.

Table 2 (which relates to figures 1 and 2 in the policy paper) contains the full monthly breakdown of the number of supply issue and discontinuation notifications.

Table 2: monthly number of supply issue and discontinuation notifications

Month and year Supply issue notifications Discontinuation notifications
October 2020 182 12
November 2020 134 46
December 2020 88 34
January 2021 89 18
February 2021 67 17
March 2021 62 29
April 2021 54 42
May 2021 64 51
June 2021 125 103
July 2021 61 284
August 2021 101 673
September 2021 90 22
October 2021 76 33
November 2021 99 35
December 2021 101 23
January 2022 114 5
February 2022 131 37
March 2022 70 37
April 2022 95 22
May 2022 118 43
June 2022 137 55
July 2022 205 30
August 2022 137 14
September 2022 182 53
October 2022 128 51
November 2022 179 20
December 2022 112 57
January 2023 168 24
February 2023 128 29
March 2023 136 65
April 2023 115 21
May 2023 115 42
June 2023 130 35
July 2023 130 38
August 2023 160 21
September 2023 114 34
October 2023 128 21
November 2023 169 50
December 2023 136 10
January 2024 158 34
February 2024 283 50
March 2024 150 23
April 2024 106 39
May 2024 182 26
June 2024 134 34
July 2024 175 31
August 2024 167 24
September 2024 193 46
October 2024 144 37
November 2024 147 34
December 2024 103 33
January 2025 183 34
February 2025 166 37
March 2025 145 29
April 2025 126 16
May 2025 125 50
June 2025 109 31

Source: DHSC DaSH portal, October 2020 to June 2025.

Risk ‘tiering’ of DaSH notifications

All medicines supply disruption notifications reported to DHSC through the DaSH portal are assigned a tier from 1 to 4, dependent on patient and system impact. (For more information on the classification of the 4 tiers, see NHS England’s guide to the systems and processes for managing medicines supply issues in England).

When notifications are reported for medicines in the same therapeutic class, they can be managed as a group of notifications (for example, multiple supply issue notifications for products used to treat attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) would be managed as one supply disruption).

When comparing December 2023 and December 2024, almost 80% of open medicines supply notifications were classified as tier 1 (low impact on the system and population).

Across both years, approximately 20% of notifications were classified as tier 2 (medium impact and likely to carry moderate to high patient safety risk) or tier 3 (high impact and likely to carry high patient safety risk), although the proportion (and overall number) of more serious tier 3 issues has reduced. These notifications require more intense management - for example, use of therapeutic alternatives.

No medicines supply disruption notifications were classified as Tier 4 (high impact and very high patient safety risk) in December 2023 or December 2024. Table 3 (which relates to figure 3 in the policy paper) has the full breakdown of the December 2023 and December 2024 comparison below.

Table 3: tier breakdown for all active open notifications on DaSH for December 2023 and December 2024

Tier Dec 2023 - number of active cases by tier Dec 2023 - percentage of active cases by tier Dec 2024 - number of active cases by tier Dec 2024 - percentage of active cases by tier
Tier 1 287 78% 360 78%
Tier 2 67 18% 96 21%
Tier 3 13 4% 5 1%
Tier 4 0 0% 0 0%
Total 367 100% 461 100%

Source: DHSC DaSH portal, December 2023 and 2024.

Medicine Supply Notifications (MSNs)

A Medicine Supply Notification (MSN) is a routinely used form of communication DHSC and NHS England can use to notify the system of potential supply issues. They are issued to healthcare professionals to provide guidance, informed by advice from clinical experts, on how to manage patients while there is a supply disruption. They include a summary of the issue and management advice. MSNs are cascaded across the NHS and details are included on the online Medicine Supply Tool - however, the time series is not published.

The number of MSNs has been consistent at around 130 issued annually for the last 3 years. See table 4 below (which relates to figure 4 in the policy paper) for the full monthly breakdown of the number of MSNs issued.

Table 4: MSNs issued by DHSC and NHS England, per month

Month MSNs issued in 2020 MSNs issued in 2021 MSNs issued in 2022 MSNs issued in 2023 MSNs issued in 2024
January 6 6 6 4 12
February 7 6 13 22 14
March 7 11 14 15 12
April 7 6 6 13 12
May 10 7 19 5 19
June 12 6 7 9 10
July 9 6 6 13 7
August 7 2 12 8 14
September 2 8 9 10 6
October 12 6 10 10 8
November 3 11 9 9 6
December 6 10 17 12 7
Total 88 85 128 130 127

Source: MSNs issued by DHSC and NHS England, 2020 to 2024.

Root causes of UK supply issues

As part of the DaSH reporting, suppliers report on the root causes of supply issues. Note, the root causes in tables 5 and 6 are for supply issues only. This analysis does not consider discontinuations.

In 2024, manufacturing problems were the most common root cause of supply issue notifications, accounting for approximately 60% of notifications. Legal, regulatory, market and demand factors are the second most reported root cause category, accounting for approximately 35% of all reported supply issues. Logistics (for example, storage and transportation) continue to be a relatively minor root cause of supply issues, accounting for approximately 5% of notifications in 2024. The final root cause category, major events, accounts for less than 1% of notifications and is therefore not included in the tables below or in figure 5 in the policy paper.

Table 5 contains a breakdown of 2024 supply issue notifications by root cause category. Suppliers are able to select more than one root cause per notification, so percentages will total more than 100%.

Table 5: root causes of DaSH supply issue notifications in 2024

Root cause category Number of notifications in 2024 Percentage of notifications in 2024
Manufacturing 1,152 59%
Legal, regulatory, market and demand 699 36%
Logistics 124 6%

Source: DHSC DaSH portal, 2024.

Root causes (sub-categories) of UK supply issues

Manufacturing problems are wide-ranging - however, raw material or packaging material (for example, foil and plastic used in packaging for tablets) shortages (20%) and manufacturing failure or relocation (approximately 15%) are the most reported sub-categories.

Within the legal, regulatory, market and demand category, customer demand and demand surges were the most common sub-category overall in 2024, accounting for 20% of total notifications. Licensing and regulatory issues accounted for approximately 10% of notifications in 2024.

Table 6 (which relates to figure 5 in the policy paper) contains the full breakdown of all root cause sub-categories and how they map to the high-level categories. Suppliers are able to select more than one root cause per notification, so percentages will total more than 100%.

Table 6: root causes (sub-categories) of DaSH supply issue notifications in 2024

Root cause category Root cause sub-category Number of notifications in 2024 Percentage of notifications in 2024
Manufacturing Raw material or packaging raw material shortage 382 20%
Manufacturing Manufacturing failure or relocation 271 14%
Manufacturing Delay in supply chain 224 12%
Manufacturing Other manufacturing 175 9%
Manufacturing Product recall or quality failure 87 4%
Manufacturing Capacity constraints 42 2%
Legal, regulatory, market and demand Customer demand or surge 385 20%
Legal, regulatory, market and demand Licensing, regulatory or enforcement 235 12%
Legal, regulatory, market and demand Other legal, regulatory, market and demand 96 5%
Logistics Other logistics 70 4%
Logistics Supply chain or transport disruption 54 3%

Source: DHSC DaSH portal, 2024.

DaSH portal data: information, coverage and caveats

Data in this section (‘Trends in UK medicine supply data’) is sourced from the DaSH portal. Revisions to historical data will not be made. Data before October 2020 is not recorded.

Tables 2 and 3 capture all supply issue and discontinuation notifications reported by MAHs for the UK market. Tables 5 and 6 capture supply issues only.

Notifications are reported at an individual medicine level by the market authorisation holder, for example ‘MAH#1, Paracetamol capsules 500mg’. MAHs can notify DHSC multiple times for a single product if the situation doesn’t improve or if a further issue is experienced at a later date. Therefore, there may be multiple supply issue notifications for a single product over time (potentially with differing root causes).

On root causes (tables 5 and 6), MAHs can select multiple root causes. For this reason, and because the major events category has been excluded, the total number of root cause reasons in tables 5 and 6 will not add up to the supply issue notifications in table 2.

Awareness of the DaSH portal has increased across the industry since it was introduced in October 2020 and reporting behaviour varies across the MAHs. This means that underreporting and overreporting will exist in the data.

The data includes notifications of both potential and confirmed supply issues and discontinuations. Given established supply issue management processes in place within DHSC and NHS England, not all medicines supply disruption notifications will result in a shortage or impact on patients. Similarly, not all discontinuation notifications will result in a discontinuation - the notification just signifies that an MAH plans to discontinue a product.

Note: some secondary care supply issues may or may not be included in overall DaSH notifications, as contracted suppliers will notify NHS England of potential disruptions directly as part of their routine contract agreements.

Further information

If you have any questions in relation to these statistics, contact statistics@dhsc.gov.uk.