Medicine Supply Notification: Antimicrobial Agents Used in Tuberculosis (TB) Treatment

This Medicines Supply Notification supersedes the National Patient Safety Alert issued on 29 July 2025

Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) has issued a medicine supply notification for Antimicrobial Agents Used in Tuberculosis (TB) Treatment

MSN/2025/058

Tier 3 – high impact

Date of issue: 23rd October 2025

• Following the National Patient Safety Alert issued on 29 July 2025, the supply situation for antimicrobial medicines used to treat tuberculosis has significantly improved.
• UK licensed packs of rifampicin 150mg capsules, rifampicin 600mg IV vials, and Rifinah^® 300 (rifampicin 300mg / isoniazid 150mg) tablets remain constrained and will be available intermittently.
• Unlicensed imports of Rifampicin 150mg capsules, rifampicin 600mg IV vials, and Rifinah^® 300 (rifampicin 300mg / isoniazid 150mg) tablets have been sourced in sufficient quantities to meet gap in supply of licensed packs; however, lead times may vary.
• Licensed stock of other tuberculosis treatments is now available. To ensure fair distribution of licensed stock, monthly Trust-level allocations will be implemented across the UK for specific TB medicines as they become available. Allocation details will be shared directly with Trusts via their Regional Pharmacy Procurement Specialist (RPPS).
• For full information on stock levels, allocations, importer details, and expected resupply dates, please refer to the Medicines Supply Tool.
• Normal services can now resume, including latent TB screening / treatment and, where needed, the prescribing of rifampicin capsules for non-TB indications in both primary and secondary care. Utilisation of available licensed stock and unlicensed imports should be optimised to ensure continuity of patient treatment.

To support equitable distribution:

• Allocations for Voractiv^® tablets in England will be managed by Phoenix Healthcare, while AAH will supply the devolved nations.
• For Sanofi products — Rifampicin 150 mg capsules, Rifinah^® 300 tablets, Rifater^® tablets, and Rifampicin 600 mg vials — allocations will be managed directly by Sanofi and distributed via AAH and Phoenix for secondary care.
• Sanofi, in agreement with the Medicines Procurement and Supply Chain (MPSC) team at NHSE, manages available stock for primary care by verifying valid prescriptions before releasing medicines to ensure fair distribution.

Unlicensed Imports

If there is currently no listing on dm+d for the imported product for prescribers to select using their prescribing systems an EPS prescription for the unlicensed product cannot be issued. Where a prescriber wishes to prescribe a specially manufactured or imported product, an FP10 paper prescription should be issued as ‘product name (Special Order)’ and endorsed by the pharmacy as a non-Part VIII special with the following information:

• Amount dispensed over pack size used;
• Invoice price per pack size from which the order was supplied less any discount or rebate;
• Manufacturers’/importers’ MHRA licence number;
• Batch number of the product supplied;
• SP

Further guidance on how prescriptions for unlicensed specials should be written can be found here.

A copy of this medicine supply notification, including supporting information, has been sent to all pharmacy NHS email addresses.

DHSC and NHS England have launched an online Medicines Supply Tool, which provides up-to-date information about medicine supply issues. The contents of these MSNs can now be viewed on the Tool.

The Tool also details any changes to resupply dates and updates to the entries.

To access the Tool you will need an NHS email address. Once set up and logged in, you will be able to access it online.

New shortages not listed on the SPS website, can be reported using our shortage reporting tool.