NHS drug pricing is all about the art of the deal NHS

Polly Toynbee prescribes NHS drugs as a “special circle of hell”, and I can confirm this, but there are methods that can be the best (who benefits from the high prices of drugs in NHS?

New medications are not cheaper than those that replace them, so if NHS will use them, they should be better. Most of the newly licensed medications do something useful for at least some patients. While some treatment is a revolution in treatment, most improvements are forward in the quality and length of life, and the National Institute for Excellence in Health and Care (NICE) recommends the vast majority of them.

Spending more money on a new drug takes money away from anywhere else in NHS, so NHS uses a little health economy to learn how to make this comparison. Companies complain This formula has not been updated for 25 years, but it is nice to fold the foundation line often Value threshold for money To facilitate access to promising new treatments.

After Nice recommends new drugs, companies face some other challenges. NHS is sometimes slow to adopt new drugs, and when you do so, a separate mechanism has been negotiated between the drug and government industry, putting an end to the amount of money that companies can make from.

Three things may help make what will always be a little difficult process. First, Nice and the government must prepare an independent review of the value threshold for money and implement its recommendations.

Second, NICE must put the seizure rates (the numbers of patients described every year) for the drugs recommended, and NHS must adhere to their achievement. Third, in contrast, companies must engage early with Nice and put a realistic price forward at the beginning (they always know what) instead of waiting for NICE to say no and then reduce it later. Companies that do this should get a special deal at the maximum prices.
Andrew Delon
Founding CEO, National Institute of Health and Welfare, 1999-2020