Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) has issued a medicine supply notification for Glucagon 1mg powder for injection kit (GlucaGen®).
Information is available on website: Medical Supply Notification
GlucaGen® 1mg powder for injection kit will be unavailable from mid-June 2023 until to mid-July (a period of 4 weeks).
There are two glucagon preparations available – GlucaGen® (1mg powder for injection kit) and Ogluo® (0.5mg and 1mg pre-filled auto-injector pens).
Ogluo® 0.5mg and 1mg pre-filled auto-injector pens can be used for the treatment of severe hypoglycaemic episodes; however, is not suitable for treatment of beta blocker or other drug overdoses.
Ogluo® is available to order from the wholesaler, Alliance.
Actions Required
In Primary Care, where patients have insufficient supplies of GlucaGen® to last until the re-supply date, healthcare professionals should:
- Prescribe or administer Ogluo® (glucagon) pre-filled auto-injector pen for the treatment of severe hypoglycaemic episodes;
- Counsel patients how to administer the pre-filled auto-injector pen and
- Limit prescriptions to two devices per patient until normal supply resumes.
Unlicensed imports
The following specialist importers have confirmed they can source some supplies of GlucaGen®
- Mawdsleys
- Target Healthcare
Other importers may also be able to source stock within Europe
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 unlicensed GlucaGen® cannot be issued. Where a prescriber wishes to prescribe a specially manufactured or imported product, an FP10 paper prescription should be issued as ‘ GlucaGen® (Special Order)‘ and endorsed by the pharmacy as a non-Part VIIIB 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
