Pharma faces ‘trench warfare’ with NHS
pharmafile | May 26, 2011 | News story | Sales and Marketing | Cost cutting, NHS, prescribing
The competing interests of the NHS and the pharma industry could end in trench warfare, a leading NHS figure has said.
Speaking at the ABPI conference Jim Easton, National Director of Improvement and Efficiency for the NHS, said the interests of pharma and the health service ‘are not the same’.
“As a customer, the NHS has not been given the budget to grow and so cannot spend extra money on drugs,” Easton said.
The frank speech is a clear departure from the usual tone taken by the Department of Health, which tends to focus on shared goals when talking to the industry.
“If your projections – and I’m sure they are – are to have a significant increase in drug spend, then we have competing interests, because you cannot achieve this from the current NHS budget.”
The health service’s need to make 4% worth of savings each year until 2015 and the industry’s need to increase sales has created an increased tension between the two groups.
“We don’t want trench warfare,” Easton said, “But this might continue unless the industry can understand out situation.”
Easton is head of the ‘QIPP’ initiative, and has been charged with finding £1 billion in efficiency savings this year alone. He says he hopes not to resort to squeezing the drugs bill to do this, but can’t make any guarantees.
Easton said he wouldn’t rule out spending less on drugs in the future.
But he said the NHS didn’t mind spending the same on drugs in four years’ time as it does today, but it will need to spend it more wisely.
This will include investing in preventative medicines and services whilst scrutinising the full value of each medicine, he said.
The biggest area for the savings in the NHS will be from chronic, life long diseases and Easton said this would be the main focus of any efficiency drive.
Ben Adams
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