London: Britain's government watchdog says there is still a "significant amount" of work to do to make sure the country has an adequate supply of licensed drugs in case of a no-deal Brexit.In a report issued on Friday, UK's National Audit Office said additional shipping capacity chartered by the UK for sending goods across the English Channel might not be operational until the end of November — one month after the October 31 deadline for Britain to leave the European Union.Of the over 12,300 medicines licensed in the UK, about 7,000 arrive from or via the EU, mostly across the Channel. Meg Hillier, who chairs a committee overseeing the audit office, called the findings "deeply concerning.

" Meg said she had seen "countless examples" of the UK government missing deadlines, but that this one was particularly striking. "If the government gets this wrong, it could have the gravest of consequences," she said.According to the UK government's "reasonable worst-case" scenario, the flow of goods could be cut by half on Day 1 of a no-deal Brexit and could take a year to recover. It said time was "extremely limited" if the shipping issues were to be resolved by the end of October. Steve Bates, UK' s Bioindustry Association CEO, said the government has given firms much less information about alternative routes in case a no-deal Brexit results in jammed ports.