Roche told UK labs they may need to activate contingency plans over supply issues - letter

LONDON (Reuters) - Swiss pharmaceutical firm Roche <ROG.S> told its UK customers that delivery problems caused by a move to a new warehouse would cause disruption and they may need to activate contingency plans, according to a letter seen by Reuters.

Earlier, Roche said it was working day and night to try and fix the problem at its new distribution centre and was prioritising COVID-19 testing materials in its efforts to restore supplies.

"The transition (to the new warehouse) uncovered some further unforeseen issues, which meant that we suddenly saw a very significant drop in our processing capacity," a commercial director at Roche's UK arm said in the letter.

"The current backlog is likely to temporarily affect and disrupt services and unfortunately, at this stage we may not be able to provide a solution to avoid such a temporary disruption.

"Our customers' contingency plans may need to be activated and we are working with them to help this happen."

(Reporting by Estelle Shirbon; Editing by Alistair Smout)