Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will publish a breakdown of the cost to the public purse of NHS spend on (a) branded pharmaceuticals, (b) generic pharmaceuticals and (c) companion diagnostics in the last 12 months.

On 7 November 2024, the NHS Business Service Authority published data on the costs of medicines, appliances, dressings, and medical devices prescribed within primary and secondary care in England. This report is available at the following link:

https://www.nhsbsa.nhs.uk/statistical-collections/prescribing-costs-hospitals-and-community-england/prescribing-costs-hospitals-and-community-england-2023-24.

A breakdown of the prescribing costs in England between branded and generic medicines is available for primary care only, and can be found at the following link:

https://www.nhsbsa.nhs.uk/statistical-collections/prescription-cost-analysis-england/prescription-cost-analysis-england-202324.

Such publications do not account for income received under the 2024 voluntary scheme for branded medicines pricing, access, and growth (VPAG) or the statutory scheme. Information on how the VPAG and the statutory scheme, which operate United Kingdom-wide, control the cost of sales of branded medicines to the National Health Service is available at the following link:

https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/voluntary-scheme-quarterly-net-sales-and-payment-information

VPAG and statutory scheme sales data does not reflect the total cost to the NHS. The publication reports net sales of non-exempt products and non-exempt companies only, and is exclusive of additional costs such as pharmacy and wholesaler margins.