President Trump’s May 12 executive order regarding most-favored-nation drug pricing argues that countries outside the US need to raise their prices on pharmaceuticals, because many other countries are “freeloading” and paying less than their share for pharmaceuticals. In response, pharmaceutical companies have raised prices in the UK and even threatened to “walk away” from the UK market if the NHS did not pay higher prices.
It seems that Britain can respond to this threat. many times Report:
Sir Keir Starmer is preparing to scrap NHS value-for-money rules in a bid to funnel more money to the pharmaceutical industry.
The Prime Minister is set to raise the price at which drugs will be considered cost-effective for the first time, as part of plans to stop pharmaceutical companies leaving Britain.
One option being considered is to increase the cost-effectiveness threshold that the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) uses to determine whether a medicine is cost-effective and ultimately whether the NHS will reimburse for the medicine. This is logical because the cost-effectiveness threshold used is more than 25 years old. more than many times,
Currently NICE will approve drugs that cost less than £20,000-£30,000 for each year of good quality of life they provide.
This benchmark, which has not changed since 1999, is based on the theory that increased costs can do more harm than good, by diverting funding from other areas in healthcare that would lead to better outcomes for patients.
An increased range of £25,000-£35,000 per year of good quality life is one option being considered. Industry figures state that if the 1999 limit had increased with inflation the limit would have been more than £56,000…
According to my own calculations using the Bank of England’s inflation calculator, £30,000 in 1999 is equivalent to £58,000 today. A report by Dolon summarizes the implications:
in real terms…[the cost effectiveness threshold]…has declined by at least 40% – and by 54% when expressed in US dollars (source) – reducing the UK’s effective willingness to pay for innovation, hampering patient access, and rendering export a low reference point for HTA systems across Europe and beyond.
NICE is also considering changing the discount rate to better take into account long-term costs and health benefits.
What do you think about this potential change in UK policy?
