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The Government is working to address shortages of both pancreatic enzyme replacement therapy (PERT) drugs and chemotherapy medicines used to treat pancreatic cancer, health minister and vascular surgeon Dr Zubir Ahmed has said.  

Writing in response to Jim Shannon, the Democratic Unionist Party MP for Strangford, Dr Ahmed said the Government has been “continuously assessing the availability of all PERT presentations” and has sought to mitigate gaps in supply.

The PERT drug Creon has been affected by shortages for several years, with some patients reporting in June 2025 that they were skipping meals in order to ration supplies of the medicine.  

Supplier Viatris said in June that it hoped “to be able to supply approximately 90-95 per cent of the average monthly demand for Creon lipase units into the market each month” until supply constraints are addressed. 

Dr Ahmed said the DHSC is working with PERT suppliers “to help resolve the supply issues in the short and longer term,” adding that these talks have resulted in additional supplies being secured for 2025.

“We are in regular communication with suppliers on expected volumes for 2026,” he added.

Specialist importers with stocks of unlicensed PERT products have also been engaged in an attempt to cover the “remaining gap in the market,” Dr Ahmed said. 

“The department will continue to work closely with the manufacturers to resolve these issues as soon as possible, to ensure patients have continuous access to medicines,” he said. 

Dr Ahmed said the DHSC has also been notified that mitomycin 10mg and 40mg powder, a type of chemotherapy used in pancreatic cancer, will be out of stock until the middle of January 2026. 

“Alternative treatments have been sourced,” said Dr Ahmed.  

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