You may have seen the widespread reports of medication shortages in the UK, and some difficult stories of patients going without critical treatments. The BBC‘s coverage makes for hard reading – people with epilepsy, Parkinson’s and heart conditions leaving pharmacies empty-handed, while pharmacy owners lose hundreds of thousands of pounds dispensing medicines at a loss. April’s record of 210 drugs on the government’s concessions list is alarming people in the supply chain. But what if we could see these medicine shortages coming before they happen? And what role can data play in preventing them?
Live data and predictive analytics can analyse prescription trends, market activity, and supply patterns, which means that pharma companies can anticipate shortages before they become critical. This isn’t just about protecting profit margins. When manufacturers can ramp up supply proactively, they reduce patient impact and support NHS sustainability.
It’s a shift to crisis prevention using the same data that has always existed… but making it actionable.
The question isn’t whether we have enough data about our pharmaceutical markets. It’s whether we’re using it intelligently enough to keep medicines on shelves when patients need them most.
This really shows why we need better, real-time data on medicine supplies so pharmacies and clinics can act before they run out.
What does the data tell us, and who’s listening?
A survey by Community Pharmacy England published in June 2025 found that 95% of pharmacy teams said patients were inconvenienced by ongoing shortages, and nearly 73% said supply issues were putting patient health at risk. The drugs affected include medicines treating schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, angina, cardiovascular disease, ADHD, diabetes and epilepsy.
The same report found the human cost runs alongside a significant operational one. Pharmacy staff spent an average of 5.3 hours a week managing supply issues in 2022; by 2025, 40% of staff were spending one to two hours each day on the problem, with a quarter spending more than two hours daily.
A July 2025 inquiry by the All-Party Pharmacy Group went further, concluding that persistent disruptions to medicine supply chains are causing widespread harm to patients, driving operational pressures across the NHS, and placing an unsustainable burden on community pharmacy teams. Its chairman described the situation as a “chronic structural challenge for both the NHS and pharmacy sector”.
The problem with reacting
Traditional pharmaceutical supply chains are largely reactive. Manufacturers increase production after a shortage becomes visible – by which point patients are already switching medications, going without, or placing repeated demands on already overstretched pharmacy teams.
Prescription trends, market activity, concession pricing patterns and supply signals are all traceable – but only when data is consolidated, live and easy to read. Too often, it sits in separate systems, arriving at different times and in incompatible formats.
What does Pharmly do differently?
The Pharmly platform pulls together over 20 million pharmaceutical market data points a month, giving manufacturers a live, joined-up view of market dynamics across the UK – including early signals of shortages.
Pharmly users can spot demand shifts as they emerge, plan increased manufacturing or adjusted imports in advance and reduce patient impact before it becomes a crisis. It also allows teams to monitor competitor activity and supply movements, removing the need to piece together intelligence from multiple sources.
Better data, shared earlier and acted on faster, is not the whole answer to a problem with complex structural roots – but it is a meaningful part of it. For generics manufacturers who want to understand where the next shortage risk lies and how to position their supply planning ahead of it, Pharmly provides the visibility to act rather than react.
To find out more or book a demo, please get in touch at info@analytichealth.co.uk.