STAT+: U.K. officials signal willingness to embrace reform in bid to attract pharma investment
The U.K. is starting to recognize that the country needs to change how it pays for medicines to attract more pharma investment, officials said.
LONDON — The U.K. government is starting to recognize that the country needs to change how it pays for medicines if it is to attract more investment from the pharmaceutical industry, a government official said Thursday.
The pharma industry has for several years complained about the scheme under which the National Health Service buys medicines, with drug companies having to pay a portion of their sales back to the government when drug spending increases past a certain level. Those criticisms have grown louder this year as the rebate rate for new medicines reached roughly 23%, far above expectations and higher than the 15% clawback rate last year.
At the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry’s annual conference Thursday, Roz Campion, the director of the U.K.’s Office for Life Sciences, said: “There is a real sense among ministers about the need for a rethink about how much we spend on medicines and the value of medicine.”
