{"id":675165,"date":"2026-07-05T14:54:47","date_gmt":"2026-07-05T14:54:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/675165\/"},"modified":"2026-07-05T14:54:47","modified_gmt":"2026-07-05T14:54:47","slug":"uk-us-pharma-deal-could-lead-to-nearly-230000-unnecessary-deaths-in-england-analysis-says","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/675165\/","title":{"rendered":"UK-US pharma deal could lead to nearly 230,000 unnecessary deaths in England, analysis says"},"content":{"rendered":"

London\u00a0\u2014\u00a0\n <\/p>\n

\n A new trade deal between the United States and United Kingdom could result in more than 200,000 otherwise avoidable deaths in England by diverting billions of pounds away from vital health services, according to a new analysis.\n <\/p>\n

\n In December, the UK agreed with Washington DC to increase the UK\u2019s spending on new medicines from 0.3% of GDP to at least 0.6% over the next decade as part of a broader deal aimed at avoiding punitive tariffs threatened by President Donald Trump.\n <\/p>\n

\n In return, the US said it will not impose levies on British exports of pharmaceutical products and medical devices for the next three years. In September, Trump threatened<\/a> tariffs of 100% for some medicines imported into the US.\n <\/p>\n

\n An analysis<\/a> published in The British Medical Journal (BMJ), a peer-reviewed medical journal, on Wednesday said the deal is expected to cost the UK\u2019s publicly funded National Health Service (NHS) an additional \u00a345 billion ($60 billion) by the end of 2036 to pay for the new medicines.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cIn publicly funded systems with finite budgets, higher spending in one area inevitably takes away the opportunity to spend elsewhere,\u201d wrote the authors from the the UK\u2019s University of York and University of Liverpool as well as New Zealand\u2019s Christchurch Hospital.\n <\/p>\n

\n Unless the UK government stumps up extra money, redirecting funds away from services in the NHS could lead to 229,000 extra deaths and exacerbate health inequalities in the country, according to the analysis. It added that most of the avoidable deaths are likely to occur among people with heart and respiratory conditions, as well as gastrointestinal disease and cancer.\n <\/p>\n

\n The UK government has praised<\/a> the \u201clandmark\u201d US trade deal, which it expects to \u201csafeguard medicines access and drive vital investment for UK patients and business.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n A spokesperson for the UK\u2019s Department of Health and Social Care said the department does not recognize the \u00a345 billion figure, adding that the deal will be funded by money set aside during its last spending review in 2025. \u201cFuture funding will be settled at the next (review),\u201d they said.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cThrough our partnership with the US, we have reformed medicine pricing, allowing NHS patients to access life-changing new medicines they previously would have been denied,\u201d the spokesperson said.\n <\/p>\n

\n But Wednesday\u2019s analysis criticized what it argues is a false assumption of the deal: That avoiding Trump\u2019s threatened tariffs will produce economic benefits in the UK.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cThe UK remains a net importer of medicines, meaning that much of the additional expenditure is likely to accrue to multinational manufacturers rather than remain within the NHS or wider UK economy,\u201d the authors wrote.\n <\/p>\n

\n By 2031, the authors said that the deal\u2019s projected costs are expected to be higher than the total annual value of UK pharmaceutical exports to the US.\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"London\u00a0\u2014\u00a0 A new trade deal between the United States and United Kingdom could result in more than 200,000…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":675166,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[59,57,58,50,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-675165","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-kingdom","tag-gb","tag-great-britain","tag-greatbritain","tag-news","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/675165","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=675165"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/675165\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/675166"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=675165"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=675165"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=675165"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}