Scottish pharmacists have called for an official investigation into the role of manufacturer supply deals in drugs shortages.

Community Pharmacy Scotland (CPS) has submitted a dossier of evidence to the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) on direct to pharmacy (DTP) and restricted wholesaler models, and what the contract negotiator believes is their detrimental impact on medicines supply.

Community pharmacists were “drowning” in bureaucracy, administration and were stressed out as a result of the supply deals, CPS told the watchdog in a strongly worded letter accompanying the dossier.

It believed the deals were intended to put restrictive quotas on medicines at wholesaler and individual pharmacy level, CPS said, and to restrict the free movement of medicines within the EU, a view dismissed by manufacturers that have previously stated that quotas help maintain supply to UK patients (C+D, June 13, p5, and June 20, p27).

Xenical and Zyprexa were named by CPS among the drugs “regularly on strict quota from pharmaceutical manufacturers”. These two medicines also topped the list of drugs pharmacists were having difficulty obtaining in the C+D Stock Survey last month.

“CPS believes that the serious and ongoing medicines shortages are being caused by the restrictive supply chain practices put in place by large pharmaceutical companies,” CPS said, “despite the efforts of large pharmaceutical companies to lay the blame at the door of a small number of community pharmacy contractors who are exporting [medicines abroad].”

Patients were suffering and NHS costs were increasing as a result of the deals, CPS told the OFT.

The NPA has also urged the OFT to investigate supply deals.