ABPI warns social contract between UK's NHS and Pharma is breaking down

The UK trade group the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry (ABP) has warned that the social contract between the National Health Service and the pharmaceutical industry was breaking down, with patients bearing the brunt.

In a speech to industry leaders at the ABPI's annual member conference, chief executive Stephen Whitehead said, in the past, pharmaceutical companies invested heavily and took great risks to discover medicines and were then rewarded through sales to the NHS so that further investment could be made for new treatments. But he is now concerned this deal has broken down as the system fails to buy the newest and most innovative medicines - to the detriment of patient health and the long term viability of the pharmaceutical industry. Spending on the newest medicines is set to decline in the coming years despite their use helping to reduce expensive hospital care and despite the savings the NHS has made on the medicines budget as many treatments lose their patent, he noted.

Mr Whitehead explained the current difficulties faced by the NHS, industry and patients, noting that "the UK is amongst the slowest adopter of new medicines in Europe, despite low prices, and our spending on new medicines is actually set to decline further. NICE approved medicines are not reaching patients despite proof of value and guarantees under the NHS constitution. This is a widespread and disturbing trend. The vital UK life sciences sector is suffering, R&D has declined from 6% of trials to 1.2%, and it no longer supports as many jobs it did just a few years ago. What's more, job losses in the past four years have amounted to 16,000.”