Fearing hard Brexit, UK drugmakers stockpile to protect lives

Britain's drugs industry said today it is stockpiling every medicine it makes to guard against a chaotic Brexit, but urged the EU to do more to protect patient lives on both sides of the Channel.

The action by the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry (ABPI) comes after ministers said this week they were working to safeguard supplies of drugs as well as food, in the event Britain crashes out of the EU next year without a negotiated deal.

"We're being asked to do this (stockpiling) for every single medicine we supply. That is the biggest peacetime contingency we've ever faced," ABPI chief executive Mike Thompson told AFP in a phone interview.

The government was "making sensible contingency plans", he said.

In contrast, the retail industry has reacted with scepticism to cabinet talk of food stockpiling, and the idea has drawn ridicule in the media.

"Retailers do not have the facilities to house stockpiled goods and in the case of fresh produce, it is simply not possible to do so," the British Retail Consortium said in a statement.

"Our food supply chains are extremely fragile and this is yet further demonstration of the need for an agreement on the backstop to ensure frictionless trade is maintained after the 29 March, 2019."