The Science Minister has warned NHS medicine prices “must increase” to “halt an exodus of pharmaceutical investment from Britain”.
NHS could change prescription rules for UK households in ‘necessary’ move
NHS rules could change to increase prescription prices for UK households, it has been warned. The Science Minister has warned NHS medicine prices “must increase” to “halt an exodus of pharmaceutical investment from Britain”.
Lord Patrick Vallance made the comment in the wake of US President Donald Trump’s squeeze on the UK. An increase in the price the NHS pays for medicines will be “necessary”, science minister Lord Vallance has said.
This comes after US-based drugmaker Merck said its UK operation will scrap plans for a £1 billion site in London’s Kings Cross – blaming the Government for paying too little for medicines and not investing enough in the sector – which was followed by AstraZeneca’s announcement it had paused plans to invest £200 million at a Cambridge research site.
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Lord Patrick told the BBC, in an interview aired on its Today programme: “There’s absolutely, day by day discussions going on, including with industry, including with the US, to try to come to a solution here that’s right for innovation, right for getting companies into the UK, and right for patients in the NHS.
“I’ve got no doubt we’ll come to some arrangement which gets to the right position on this, because we have to – I think price increases are going to be a necessary part of what we need to do to get to a solution which will benefit patients.”
He said it is for the Health Secretary and Chancellor to decide where the money comes from. But it could be passed onto households in the form of rising prices.
Speaking on the BBC’s Today programme, the science minister said “that (Trump) is a big factor and it is the case that drug prices are very much higher in the US than anywhere else in the world”.
He added that “a lot of” companies’ profits comes from the US and “the UK is something like 2% or less of the profit of companies globally”.
He said: “Well, I don’t think that’s necessarily the equation, but of course, President Trump has said … he wants greater parity on pricing.”
The minister said: “I think it’s inevitable – we must end up with a deal of some sort and we have to, because it’s in the interest of the economy, it’s in the interest of patients, and we need to get that right to make sure that patients here get rapid access to the best medicines, and to do that in a way that’s fair and equitable across the country.”