Novartis products will remain available at all pharmacies despite the UK no longer being part of the EU single market for pharmaceuticals, the company’s representative office has assured.

A representative of the pharmaceutical giant made the pledge after the Chamber of SMEs listed a Novartis-manufactured eye drop among medicines that would be running out.

Travatan was mentioned by the chairman of the Chamber’s pharmaceutical division, Mario Debono, who warned that pre-Brexit stockpiling of medicines to fend off its impact was “disappearing”, and pharmacies were running out of popular products.

But local distributors, VJ Salomone Pharma, have several months’ worth of stock of the product in hand and new orders were in place, Novartis has assured.

Novartis has “strongly prepared” for Brexit, with preparations starting years before, said Tania Borg from Novartis Pharma Services Inc, the Malta representative office.

"Novartis Marketing Authorisations have all been shifted from the UK, with all packs updated well in advance, ensuring continued, uninterrupted supply of its products post-Brexit,” she said.

“To this effect, the Marketing Authorisation Holder of Travatan is today Novartis Europharm Ltd, based in Ireland.”

The Chamber of Small and Medium Enterprises has listed a range of household names imported from the UK that have run out or were about to become casualties of Brexit on the local pharmaceutical market.

While some products would be made available from other sources, they were likely to involve an increase in costs, stated Debono, whose division encompasses pharmacy owners, pharmaceutical importers, wholesalers and private hospitals and clinics.

The UK was the go-to market due to the ease of sourcing goods, their competitive prices, the fact that the packs were in English and that, historically, Malta’s clinical forma mentis was based on its model, he explained to Times of Malta.

Debono also highlighted the resilience of importers, who were managing to fill in the gaps with other products and formulations.

But he pointed his fingers squarely at “unforceful” negotiations with the EU on the part of Malta, Ireland and Cyprus, saying “they should have brokered a special arrangement and presented the argument that the EU cannot push us into a worse situation in terms of price and availability”.

One medicine importer said the government was informally being lobbied to take a stand and provide access to these missing medicines and find a way for the UK to supply the market.