VBP negotiations ‘opened up’
pharmafile | February 19, 2013 | News story | Sales and Marketing | ABPI, Cancer, EMIG, NHS, VBP
Patient views will for the first time be heard in negotiations between the Department of Health and ABPI about Value-Based Pricing (VBP).
In a joint announcement, the two bodies have said that they will hold separate meetings with other parties on VBP rather than keeping discussions – as they are now – behind closed doors.
“The content of these meetings will be reported back to meetings of the negotiating teams for their information to ensure an holistic basis of common understanding for a new scheme,” the statement said.
Each of these ‘parallel’ meetings will be attended by a member of the ABPI negotiating team ‘to ensure seamless integration’.
VBP is due to become the means by which new drugs are priced and assessed for NHS use from January 2014, replacing the voluntary Pharmaceutical Price Regulation Scheme (PPRS), which limits pharma’s profits.
Prostate Cancer UK welcomed the move. “We are delighted that the consultation into Value-Based Pricing will no longer take place behind closed doors,” said the charity’s chief executive Owen Sharp.
“This is an excellent development and is exactly what Prostate Cancer UK and like-minded charities have been demanding for some time,” he added.
A coalition of cancer charities had warned the government that to exclude patient views from the VBP talks would risk “seriously undermining the credibility and effectiveness” of the new system.
In November, it produced ‘Value-Based Pricing: Getting it right for people with cancer’, a report backed by Breakthrough Breast Cancer, Bowel Cancer UK and Macmillan Cancer Support among others, offering patients’ opinions on the issues around VBP.
“We very much look forward to working with the Department of Health and ABPI over the coming months to ensure the voice of patients is heard,” Sharp went on.
“Patient groups must have a say in the design of the new system so that it truly reflects their needs, as it is their lives that will be most affected,” he concluded.
However, while the Ethical Medicines Industry Group (EMIG) has applauded patient involvement in VBP talks, it believes the new development does not go far enough.
“EMIG is calling for an all-industry and broad stakeholder consultation on the shape of proposals,” said the group’s chairman Leslie Galloway.
“Only by doing this will we enable ownership of the scheme across all stakeholders and deliver the true potential of Value-Based Pricing,” he added.
EMIG argues that since VBP could stimulate patient access to medicines, drive pharma R&D and encourage investment in the UK economy, “negotiations should be widened to all relevant stakeholders”.
The government says VBP will take into account the value of a drug for patients and to society, and encourage a focus on developing drugs addressing areas of significant unmet need.
The new system is likely to offer lower rewards to drugs which only offer limited additional benefits to existing treatments.
Adam Hill
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