Industry pays further £209 million to underwrite medicines bill

The ABPI and the Department of Health have announced a payment of £209 million from industry to underwrite growth of the medicines bill for the second quarter of 2015 under the 2014 Pharmaceutical Price Regulation Scheme (PPRS)

Industry has contributed a total of £416 million in PPRS payments so far in 2015 to help support the use of branded medicines by the NHS. However, the growth rate of branded medicines in the scheme for the second quarter of 2015 was 2.41% - half the rate seen in 2014.

David Watson, director of pricing and reimbursement for the ABPI said: “As an industry, we want to see patients getting access to the best high value medicines across all therapy areas. This scheme provides the NHS with a unique opportunity to give patients in the UK greater access to new and innovative treatments at minimal cost.

“We are deeply concerned that the reduced growth rate shown in the second quarter suggests that patients in the UK are still losing out. Whilst industry is underwriting the medicines bill, patients are still not getting access to the right medicines at the right time. The UK already lags behind the rest of Europe in investing in medicines, based on the expenditure on pharmaceuticals per person. Today’s figures suggest that this could be worsening.

“This is bad news for patients – we urge the NHS to ensure the PPRS payments allow clinicians to prescribe the medicines that they believe are right for their patients.”

During 2014 industry paid a total of £310 million to the Department of Health under the PPRS and it is anticipating payments totalling £800 million for 2015.