The government is in talks with drug companies about funding the extra costs of stockpiling and flying in vital medicines in the event of a no-deal Brexit, the health secretary has revealed.

Matt Hancock said the discussions were not a remnant of the so-called project fear campaign against Brexit, but part of “responsible planning for a no-deal”.

The pro-Europe Best for Britain warned last week that Hancock’s plan to set aside six weeks’ worth of vital medicines for a no-deal would cost £2bn.

Interviewed on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, Hancock did not disclose how much the initiative would cost. But he revealed that the government was prepared to compensate pharmaceutical companies for the extra costs involved.

“The medicine delivery to the hospitals should continue unhindered,” he said. “Their existing contracts need to be fulfilled. The task is for the pharmaceutical companies to ensure that enough supplies are available to ensure that can happen. That means stockpiling in the case of medicines that come over the land border but it also means, in some cases, being prepared if necessary to switch the supply from land to air, so that we can fly in, for instance, the very short shelf-life medicines.”

Asked if the government was prepared to pay the extra costs involved, Hancock said: “We are talking to pharmaceutical industry about what extra costs the government will cover.”

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As an example he was asked if such costs included refrigerating insulin supplies. Hancock replied: “We are open for a conversation in that space. We won't pay for the drugs themselves, because they will be then sold on to the NHS, and so we not going to pay for them twice, but we are talking to the pharmaceutical industry about the extra costs that they might have to incur in that eventuality.”

Hancock said the government was likely to get a deal with the EU before leaving the bloc next March. “I don't want to end up with a no-deal Brexit and I'm increasingly confident that we are going to get a deal with the EU.

“Nevertheless it is important as a responsible government to make sure that we prepare for all eventualities and therefore we have got to be ready for exiting without a deal, and therefore we have proposed that there is stockpiling of medicines by the pharmaceutical companies, not by the NHS … I'm confident that if everybody does what they need to do then we can have an unhindered flow of medicines.”

Owen Smith, the former shadow Northern Ireland secretary and a supporter of Best for Britain, pointed out that Brexit campaigners had failed to take into account the cost and practicalities of stockpiling and flying in medicines.

Owen Smith (@OwenSmith_MP) Very reassuring to hear @MattHancock tells @BBCr4today that the taxpayer is set to pay extra to fly in short shelf-life medicines in event of No Deal. I must have missed that charge too in the Brexit small print.