Pharma pays £310 million underwriting UK meds bill
pharmafile | March 13, 2015 | News story | Sales and Marketing | ABPI, NHS, PPRS, body, department, health pricing, pharma
Pharma has made a fourth quarter payment of £81 million to underwrite the 2014 UK medicines bill under the Pharmaceutical Price Regulation Scheme (PPRS).
The overall payment made by the industry last year totalled £310 million, which is 5.2% less than the quarter three growth of 5.93 per cent. While this represents more than the original joint forecast of 3.87% – when compared to the same quarter in 2013 it indicates an increase of 3.2 per cent.
“There is significant disparity of growth across the primary and secondary care settings as well as between different therapy areas,” comments Alison Clough, who is the ABPI’s executive director commercial.
“We are committed to working with all parties to ensure that the barriers to the use of new medicines in all care settings are removed and that NICE appropriately assesses medicines so that ring-fenced funds for selected therapy areas are not needed.”
The multifaceted pricing scheme came into effect on 1 January 2014 and will terminate on 31 December 2018. Last year it was announced that the agreed fixed limit spend will stay flat in 2015 but annual growth will be limited to 1.8% in 2016, with an increase to 1.9% by 2018.
According to The Department of Health and the ABPI, a 2015 payment percentage of 10.36% will be due in order to underwrite the growth of the medicines bill. The scheme was initially met with some uncertainty with some proposing that it is a missed opportunity for patients and also creates financial problems for smaller companies.
Clough concludes: “Industry agreed to the PPRS in order to improve the use of innovative medicines in the UK. We are working with the Department of Health, NHS England and government to ensure action in key areas such as changes to NICE’s decision making framework and medicines optimisation to maximise the benefits of the PPRS so that patients can get the right medicine at the right time.”
Tom Robinson
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