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Access to veterinary medicines in Northern Ireland
What's the issue?
Following Brexit and in the absence of a veterinary agreement with the European Union, Northern Ireland (NI) faces the risk of a lack of supply of some veterinary medicines from January 2026 – after the grace period which the European Commission granted expires- as it is required to comply with EU regulations which require veterinary medicines to be batch-tested when entering the EU and labelled with a Marketing Authorisation Holder (MAH) inside the EU.
The discontinuation of veterinary medicines would have devastating impacts on animal health and welfare, public health and One Health, while also severely impacting cross-border trade.
What's our view?
BVA has consistently engaged with the UK government, the EU and other stakeholders suggesting realistic and tangible solutions.
We have suggested several solutions and mitigations, both long-term ones, such as veterinary agreement with the EU and shorter- term ones. Some of our solutions include re-routing medicines via the Republic of Ireland, develop a Special Import Certificate scheme for NI; applying exceptions to allow all or some veterinary medic mitigations include applying exceptions to allow all or at least some veterinary medicines that were aligned with regulation before Brexit to continue to be supplied to NI without having to have the MAH location changed or re-batch tested, while urging the government to publish a list of impacted medicines so that veterinary professionals can plan ahead and potentially find alternative solutions working with farmers and pet owners.
