HRT supplier ramps up production to ease UK shortages
A HORMONE replacement therapy supplier is ramping up production to ease UK shortages.
Besins Healthcare, maker of Oestrogel, has now taken on an extra factory and ordered more manufacturing shifts to handle demand.
Oestrogel is one of the menopause treatments that women are most struggling to access in Britain, with prescription numbers rocketing.
Besins also said it has “significantly increased” deliveries to the UK in a bid to ease current shortages by June.
The French firm is the only supplier of Oestrogel, which is prescribed millions of times every year on the NHS to ease menopause symptoms.
A spokesperson said: “We regret that the current supply is sometimes insufficient to meet the continuing extraordinary demand we are experiencing.
“Besins Healthcare plans to further increase our production capabilities to enable us to supply even more of this product into the UK market.”
Surging demand means pharmacies are struggling to get stocks to all women who want it, forcing many to buy it privately or on the “black market”.
Campaigner Jane Pangbourne, of the Menopausal Not Mad advice site, said: “This is a short-term victory, it isn’t the end.
"There are other shortages from the knock-on effect of women not getting the gel.
"And demand is only going to increase.”
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Dr Philippa Kaye, GP and author of The M Word, added: “I am delighted that production is ramping up.
“We need to ensure that people have access to this medication that they so often desperately need.”