STORMONT’S health minister has voiced concern about the supply line of medicines to Northern Ireland as a result of a looming Brexit regulatory barrier.

Under the terms of Brexit’s contentious Northern Ireland Protocol, the region is to operate under different regulatory rules for medicines and medical devices than the rest of the UK.

Northern Ireland currently secures 98% of its supplies from Great Britain. A one-year grace period delaying the implementation of this aspect of the protocol is due to expire at the end of the year.

Health minister Robin Swann told his Assembly scrutiny committee that the EU’s ill-fated attempt to suspend a part of the protocol in January had impacted efforts to prepare for the end of the grace period.

“The derogation period for medicines was one of the longest that was actually agreed at the start which gave us to the end of this year actually to get things sorted out and in a better place,” he said.

“Everyone thought that work was progressing well until the EU triggered Article 16 over vaccines.”

The UK is pressing the EU to agree to a further extension of the grace period on medicines and supplies.