Health leaders call for clarity on how higher drug prices will be paid for in new deal
Responding to the announcement on a UK-US pharmaceuticals deal to safeguard medicine access, Dr Layla McCay, director of policy at the NHS Confederation said:
"Healthcare leaders know that a thriving health and life sciences sector is key to ensuring that patients can access the treatments and innovations they need, at the best value to the NHS, whilst also supporting economic growth.
"Medicines also have a key role to play in delivering the government’s three shifts for the NHS, including keeping people out of hospital.
"However, the NHS budget in England is under significant pressure from the rising demand for care, coupled with ongoing strike action, so we will need to understand how these higher drug prices will be paid for. Any uplift in medicines prices would need to be funded by HM Treasury.
"An increase in medicines spending that is funded within existing planned NHS budgets, presents risks to the quality of services to patients and could result in difficult decisions about what the health service needs to cut back on."
