Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the Answer of 14 March to Question 131104 on Drugs: Costs, what assessment he has made of the cost of branded medicines (a) to the NHS and (b) in comparison with the health systems in other EU countries.

National Health Service spend on branded medicines during 2015-2016 was approximately £11.2 billion. The Pharmaceutical Price Regulation Scheme (PPRS) supports the NHS to improve patient access to clinically and cost effective medicines through the rigorous National Institute for Health and Care Excellence appraisal process, which plays important role in helping to ensure the best outcomes for patients with the resources available. This is coupled with industry making payments on branded medicines sales above an agreed growth cap.

The statutory scheme provides a financial safeguard for the NHS, by providing controls on the costs of branded medicines to the NHS where a company has chosen not to join the PPRS. New regulations came into force on 1 April 2018, which amended the statutory scheme to align it more closely with the 2014 PPRS. In particular, the regulations replaced a system of price cuts with a payment system; the payment percentage introduced – 7.8% - is the same as the 2018 percentage in the PPRS.

The Department does not make a formal assessment of branded medicines expenditure in comparison with other European Union countries, and some of the information necessary to do that is commercially confidential. Participation in the EURIPID pricing project ensures we receive regular information on initiatives across EU countries in relation to branded medicines pricing.