Medicine Supply Notification: Bumetanide 1mg and 5mg tablets

It is important patients do not go without their diuretic if they are prescribed this regularly.

In order to achieve this, GP practice teams should be pro-actively switching patients to an alternative (furosemide in the majority of cases). There should be enough Furosemide stock to support this swap.

If you have stock remaining of Bumetanide please keep this for patients on higher doses (more than 2mg OD) or for those patients who cannot tolerate Furosemide.

Any scripts for Bumetanide should be referred back to the GP for a pro-active switch BEFORE the patient runs out.

Hopefully GPs are actively switching patients, but there are always some that fall through the cracks. It’s around 80 patients per GP practice that are affected.

ACTION: If you see any scripts for Bumetanide, contact the GP surgery as soon as possible to request and alternative script.

Medicine Supply Notification Details

Tier 3 – high impact

• Bumetanide 5mg tablets are out of stock until early March 2024.
• Bumetanide 1mg tablets remain available until the end of October and will be out of stock until January 2024.
• Bumetanide 1mg/5ml SF oral solution remains available but is unable to support increased demand.
• Furosemide 20mg and 40mg tablets remain available and can support increased demand.
• Where these are not suitable, unlicensed supplies of bumetanide 1mg and 5mg tablets may be sourced, lead times vary.

Use of unlicensed products

The following specialist importers have confirmed they can source unlicensed Bumetanide 1mg and 5mg tablets (please note there may be other companies that can also source supplies):

• Alium
• Mawdsley

Prescribing requirements for unlicensed products

If prescribers cannot select the unlicensed product on their prescribing systems, an EPS prescription for the unlicensed product cannot be issued.

Where a prescriber wishes to prescribe a specially manufactured or imported product, an FP10 paper prescription should be issued as ‘Bumetanide 1mg or 5mg tablets (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

Supporting information:

• SPS Medicines Supply Tool