The price of drugs in the United Kingdom increases “necessary”, explains Lord Patrick Vallance
The price that the NHS pays for drugs will have to increase to stop a wave of pharmaceutical investment leaving the United Kingdom, said Minister of Sciences Patrick Vallance.
His comments follow several recent announcements from some of the largest pharmaceutical companies in the world on a break or by removing projects in the United Kingdom.
Critics of the sector say that low prices for new drugs, the lack of government investment and the pricing pressure from US President Donald Trump has moved companies in the United Kingdom away.
Lord Vallance said that BBC price increases will be a necessary part “to solve this problem.
“The moment when additional money comes to pay higher prices is a question for the Ministry of Health and the Treasury to be understood,” he added.
Lord Vallance Spoke at the opening of the new center of the American vaccine Moderna in the Oxfordshire where millions of flu and cocovio shots will be made.
The Minister of Sciences is the best known for his regular appearances in Pandemic Press Conferences in his role as chief scientific advisor of the government, and was also previously president of the research and development of the GSK global pharmaceutical society.
The Secretary of Health, Wes Street, who cut the ribbon of the development project on Wednesday, said to the BBC that there was “a live conversation between the ministries and the pharmaceutical industry” on the pricing of drugs.
Lord Vallance added: “We must end up with a certain kind … because it is in the interest of the economy, it is in the interest of patients.”
According to the government, Moderna invests more than a billion sterling pounds in research and development in the United Kingdom as part of a 10-year partnership to create new treatments and stimulate pandemic resilience.
His commitment, made three years ago, contrasts with Merck’s decision this month to remove an investment of 1 billion pounds Sterling in the United Kingdom and a break by Astrazeneca from an investment of 200 million pounds Sterling in Cambridge, also this month.
Meanwhile, Novartis said in August that NHS patients will lose access to new peak treatments due to arrow costs.
He said he did not consider the United Kingdom for new significant investments in manufacturing, research or advanced technologies due to “systemic barriers”.
Another pharmaceutical company Eli Lilly told Financial Times on Wednesday that the United Kingdom was “probably the worst European country” for medicines prices.
Over the past 10 years, British medication expenses have increased from 15% of the 9% NHS budget, while the rest of the developed world increases between 14% and 20%.
Elsewhere, Trump has put pressure on pharmaceutical companies to reduce prices and invest more in the United States.
Last month, talks broke up between street and pharmaceutical companies on the cost of medicines for the United Kingdom.
The British government said at the time that it had presented a “generous and unprecedented offer to accelerate growth” in the pharmaceutical sector.
Streetting previously insisted on the fact that he would not allow pharmaceutical companies to “scam” taxpayers and to describe the approach of pharmaceutical companies as “at short view”.
However, he took a more conciliatory tone on Wednesday saying “it is a live conversation – not only at the national level with the industry, but also internationally with the United States”.
“There is an intersection between government growth ambitions, government’s health ambitions, government’s commercial ambitions and bilateral relations with the United States,” he added.
