Why is pregnancy sickness drug not easily accessible to all?

Image source, BBC/Linzi Kinghorn Image caption, BBC journalist Linzi Kinghorn wanted to find out why a drug to treat pregnancy sickness was not easily accessible By Linzi Kinghorn South of England , Reporting from Hampshire Published 33 minutes ago When I first found out I was pregnant, I went to my local GP with chronic sickness. I truly felt awful. I could barely get out of bed and couldn't hold much food down, but I assumed it was just morning sickness and that it would pass. When the GP diagnosed me with Hyperemesis Gravidarum , external (HG) I realised this was not just usual pregnancy sickness and started considering my options. I was told that there were a variety of first-line drug treatment options available on the NHS, including Doxylamine Succinate and Pyridoxine Hydrochloride, a drug which goes by the brand name Xonvea in the UK. It really worked for me and access to it was straightforward, so I was surprised to find out that some pregnant women face challenges when trying to get hold of it. Image caption, Jasmeen Basi says getting access to the drug was "life-changing" Jasmeen Basi, a mum of three from Southampton, says she had to fight to get access: "I felt really hideous. It did get to a point where I went to the doctor and said: 'I am feeling really off and I am being sick about 10 times a day'. "You can't eat anything. I would smell water and I would vomit. "I would hit my head so hard against the wall in my house, that my head would throb and I would have relief from the sickness. It's really hard to explain how utterly horrific it is." She was offered one of the first-line drug treatment options , external , but found that it didn't work: "It nowhere touched the sides. I was still being sick every day. "But it was slightly less. Maybe I was vomiting six times rather than 10." Image caption, Xonvea has been approved by the MHRA for use in the UK After spending a lot of her second pregnancy in A&E, by the time she was pregnant for the third time, she'd done her research and asked for Xonvea. "As soon as I got that positive test result, I was on the phone to the GP and said I've got a really severe history of HG. I want to be put on to Xonvea. I've tried all the other drugs," she explains. "There seemed to be this red tape, where the GP couldn't prescribe it and so she was having to get it approved by a consultant. "I was on the phone almost every day chasing up." After feeling like she wasn't getting anywhere Jasmeen paid for a private GP appointment and for a prescription: "I had a call with a private GP. It was less than four minutes long. "And within about two minutes of me finishing that phone call, I had that prescription in my inbox. "It was completely life-changing. I could function." Image caption, Marianne Eldridge, from the Pregnancy Sickness Support, says access to Xonvea is a 'postcode lottery' Marianne Eldridge, from the Pregnancy Sickness Support charity, says it has found Xonvea has positive results: "We did a su