No “magic bullet” for financial pressures, Hunt tells drug groups

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British Chancellor Jeremy Hunt has told drugmakers the government lacks a “magic bullet” to deal with financial pressures and is unlikely to give in to industry demands to pay significantly higher prices for drugs.

The Government is on Friday to unveil £650m worth of reforms to revive the life sciences sector as part of a wider package of measures.

Drug makers have condemned the government for raising a tax on the sale of medicines to the NHS to 26.5% this year, up from 5.1% in the past two years. They backed it down prices it means that the UK will lose investment in innovation.

The levy, or voluntary price and access to brand name medicines (Vpas) scheme, is designed to cap the NHS drug bill.

The chancellor and other ministers met with pharmaceutical company leaders, including AstraZeneca and GSK, on ​​Thursday to discuss proposals to boost growth in the life sciences sector, which is worth £94bn to the UK.

Hunting he said drug makers knew the prices paid for NHS medicines would remain lower than in other countries.

“[Pharma companies] recognize that the NHS will continue to get the lowest prices globally for medicines because it is a single payer for one of the largest healthcare systems in the world.

“I’m very honest with pharmaceutical companies that we don’t have a magic wand to deal with these financial pressures. Responsible public finances are absolutely essential if we are to have economic stability.”

Hunt said the government wanted to work with the companies to find a “win-win” outcome as they negotiate a deal the NHS drug bill for the next few years.

The announcement came as a US pharmaceutical company Eli Lilly – which is developing innovative drugs for Alzheimer’s and obesity – said it was pausing a potential investment in London.

Eli Lilly said it was considering other locations in Europe due to concerns about a “stuffy trading environment” in the UK.

“In the short term, negotiating a new and sustainable price deal that unlocks the growth potential of our industry is key to restoring the UK’s international competitiveness and attracting future investment,” it said in a statement.

Ministers also unveiled £121m in funding to revive NHS-led commercial clinical trials, some of which had previously been announced.

The government has also committed up to £250m to boost pension schemes to fund UK science and technology companies.

In a government-commissioned report released on Friday, former life sciences minister Lord James O’Shaughnessy made recommendations to address a dramatic decline in the number of commercial trials in the UK, including that doctors should be paid to participate. to clinical research.

Hunt supported O’Shaughnessy’s goal of quadrupling the number of patients in clinical trials by 2027. The government also accepted his recommendations to reduce the time to approval of commercial trials to 60 days and to create a single contract for research across the NHS.

Richard Torbett, chief executive of the British Pharmaceutical Industry Association, said the measures showed the government was listening to industry.

But he added that improving search is “only part of the equation.” “To deliver innovative medicines to patients and fully seize the growth opportunity, we also need to fix the commercial environment.”