Medicine Supply Notification: Lidocaine (Xylocaine® ) 10mg/dose spray sugar free
Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) has issued a medicine supply notification for Lidocaine (Xylocaine®) 10mg/dose spray sugar free.
MSN/2025/028
Tier 2 – medium impact
Date of issue: 7th May 2025
- Lidocaine (Xylocaine®) 10mg/dose spray sugar free is out of stock from mid-May until late June 2025.
- Lidocaine 5% / Phenylephrine 0.5% nasal spray remains available but cannot support an increase in demand
- Lidocaine 150mg/g / Cetrimide 1.5mg/g (Xylonor®) oromucosal spray sugar free remains available but cannot support an increase in demand.
- Lidocaine 50mg/g / Cetrimide 1.5mg/g (Xylonor®) gel sugar free remains available and can support an increase in demand.
- Unlicensed supplies can be sourced, lead times vary.
Unlicensed products
The following specialist importers have confirmed they can source unlicensed lidocaine 10mg/dose spray sugar free (please note there may be other companies that can also source supplies):
- Alium medical
- BAP Pharma
- Chemys Ltd
- Clinigen
- Durbin
- Genetech Pharmaceuticals
- Mawdsleys
- Qmed Pharma
- Smartway
- Tanner Pharma
- Target Healthcare
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 ‘lidocaine 10mg/dose spray sugar free (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.
