UK's NHS spending on most advanced medicines set to decline, new study reveals

The UK’s total National Health Service (NHS) spending on medicines is well under control, whilst expenditure on innovative branded medicines is actually set to shrink in real terms and as a proportion of the health care budget over the next three years, according to a new forecast published by the Office of Health Economics, for the trade group the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry (ABPI).

This has raised concerns from the head of the research-based pharmaceutical industry in the UK about how little the NHS is spending on the most innovative medicines and the slow speed at which patients can access new treatments compared with our European neighbors.

The research found that while the total amount spent on the NHS is set to rise by 2.5% a year between 2011 and 2015, spending on new branded medicines will rise by just 1.3% annually. There will be a very slight increase in the growth of the total amount spent on medicines annually from 3.5% (the figure for 2007 – 2011) to 3.7% a year up to 2015, which is driven by an increase in the proportion spent on generic medicines. The figures also revealed that in three years’ time medicines launched between 2012 and 2015 will account for less than 2 per cent of total spending on medicines.