NHS on track to make £358 million in drug savings

pharmafile | December 23, 2011 | News story | Sales and Marketing DoH, NHS, QIPP 

The NHS in England is set to make £358 million in savings from drugs over the financial year, according to new forecasts by the government.

In a report released by the Department of Health this week, the NHS has managed to save £164 million, and is forecast to make total savings of £358 million by April next year.

If the full-year target of £5.9 billion is achieved, then savings from drugs will represent around 6% of the total figure.

The report covers the six-month period from April to September this year; the DH will release a full annual report in April 2012.

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The biggest percentage of savings is forecast to come from hospitals, which is set to save £2.92 billion this financial year, nearly half of the entire target (see table below). 

Controversial practices

The savings are part of the government’s QIPP agenda, which aims to make £20 billion back over the next four years by improving quality, innovation, prevention and productivity in the health service. 

Much of the drug savings will come from patent expiries from major medicines, including Pfizer’s blockbuster statin Lipitor, which is due to go off patent in May, and the continued erosion of Sanofi/Bristol Myers Squibb’s Plavix.

But controversy still remains over how some of these targets are being met. Whilst QIPP aims to encourage an innovative approach to reducing drug costs, many NHS commissioners are still using ‘slash and burn’ tactics to make savings on the £13 billion a year drugs budget. 

This includes the use of ‘red’ and ‘black’ lists of drugs, which pressurises doctors into not prescribing high-cost treatments.

In April, a series of Freedom of Information requests showed that primary care trusts were encouraging GPs not to prescribe a number of NICE-approved drugs, including Lipitor, AstraZeneca’s anti-cholesterol Crestor, and Amgen and GlaxoSmithKline’s Prolia for osteoporosis.

Given that the NHS must continue to find savings until 2015 and will need to increase its current trajectory to meet these ambitious targets, pharma can expect such controversial practices to continue.  

QIPP Category

Forecast for annual savings by April 2012

Actual savings from April – September 2011

Acute services

£2.92 billion

£1.19 billion

Ambulance services

£70 million

£30 million

Community services

£468 million

£228 million

Continuing healthcare

£145 million

£70 million

Mental health services

£424 million

£183 million

Non-NHS healthcare

£158 million

£89 million

Prescribing

£358 million

£164 million

Primary care, dental, pharmacy, eyecare

£214 million

£97 million

Specialised commissioning

£289 million

£138 million

Other

£855 million

£278 million

Total

£5.9 billion

£2.47 billion

Source: ‘The Quarter’ QIPP savings from the Department of Health

Ben Adams 

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