'I need to take around 25 Creon tablets a day but I have just 100 left'

'Wartime ration' plight of CF patients as drug runs out

- By Chris Riches

A CYSTIC fibrosis sufferer has told how wartime-style rationing is hitting pharmacies as supplies of a lifesaving drug appear to have almost run out.

The genetic condition causes sticky mucus to clog not only the lungs, but also the pancreas stopping it releasing releasing crucial enzymes the body needs to digest fats, proteins and starches.

Most of the UK's 11,600 CF sufferers take Creon, which helps them digest their food.

But a "constrained supply" crisis that manufacturer Viatris blames on its German third-party maker Abbott, has left hospitals and pharmacies across Europe finding the drug hard to obtain.

CF sufferer Marc Cotterill has been waiting for his Creon prescription since February and now has just one week's supply before he runs out completely.

Fellow patients have offered him some of their own dwindling pills, but unless supplies are stepped up, experts fear we could have an avalanche of serious health issues among those who rely on Creon.

Business consultant Marc, 42, said: "It is crazy to think that in 21st-century Britain we have patients self-imposing a World War Two-style rationing on their medications due to the sheer scarcity of these vital tablets.

"I take about 25 Creon tablets a day but all I have left now is one last pot of 100 pills.

"It's a horrible situation I know thousands are also in. It's disgraceful this has happened.