Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they have any plans to offer some form of protection to small and medium-sized enterprises with sales between £5 million and £25 million in the Pharmaceutical Price Regulation Scheme 2014.

The 2014 Pharmaceutical Price Regulation Scheme (PPRS) was agreed with the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry and smaller businesses were represented in the negotiations.

The 2014 PPRS includes a number of provisions relating to smaller businesses. For example, companies with sales of health service medicines of less than £5 million a year (not counting global sales) are exempt from making any payments under the 2014 PPRS scheme.

We have no plans to amend the PPRS which was negotiated with the industry and to which all parties remain committed. One of the agreed objectives set out in the Scheme is to provide stability and predictability to both the National Health Service and to the industry.