Key Summary
- The science minister assured that frontline services would be protected.
- The Government estimates that the deal would cost £1 billion over the current spending review period.
- The DHSC, NHS England, and NICE had participated in a joint analysis of the expected financial impact.
Science minister Lord Patrick Vallance has confirmed that funding for the recently announced UK-US pharmaceutical deal will be provided through allocations to the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC), and emphasised that frontline services would be protected.
The minister stated this in a reply to a letter by the Science, Innovation and Technology Committee chair, Dame Chi Onwurah, who had earlier sought details regarding the pharmaceutical deal.
The Minister provided some details of the methodology behind the Government’s estimation that the deal would cost £1 billion over the current Spending Review Period.
The DHSC, NHS England, and NICE had participated in a joint analysis of the expected financial impact.
In her response, Onwurah said, “Greater transparency on the UK-US pharmaceutical deal is vital to give much-needed confidence and clarity to the NHS, the public, and to the life sciences sector. I welcome Lord Vallance’s letter, and the clarification that the funding for the deal will come from the DHSC.
“This deal carries a significant cost and it’s up to the government to ensure to ensure that it delivers significant return. It’s crucial that the benefits to UK patients outweigh the projected financial cost, particularly given the huge existing demands on the NHS. As the deal progresses, domestic health and life sciences policy must remain the priority - not the interests of US pharmaceutical companies,” she said.
Responding to the government’s confirmation on UK-US pharmaceuticals deal, Dr Layla McCay, director of policy, said on behalf of the NHS Confederation and NHS Providers, “NHS leaders know well how important reliable access to medicines is to ensure patients across the country have access to the best treatments at the right time and at the highest value.
“While health leaders will be reassured to hear that frontline NHS service budgets will not be raided to fund these higher drug prices, they will also be concerned to note that against an already very challenging financial environment DHSC budgets will be used. It also remains unclear which planned DHSC spending will need to be cut to cover the costs of higher medicines spending.
“Against rising demand for care and huge pressure on all parts of the health service any increases in medicines spending paid for through either NHS or DHSC central pots must not adversely impact the quality of health service provision or force health care leaders into making further difficult choices of where to pare back patient care.”
