BRIEF—ABPI response to Jeremy Corbyn speech

In a speech last week, leader of the UK'S opposition party Labour, Jeremy Corbyn, highlighted concerns about the high price of medicines and reiterated Labour’s proposals for compulsory licensing.

In response to that speech, Richard Torbett, executive director of commercial policy at trade group the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry (ABPI) said: “The UK already has effective systems in place to make sure medicines are priced affordably and reflect the value they bring to people’s lives. It is extremely rare that the NHS [National Health Service] and a company fail to agree a price.

"In NICE [National Institute for Health and Care Excellence] we have a world leader in determining whether a medicine is cost-effective. There is also an agreement between the pharmaceutical industry and government which gives the NHS complete certainty on what it will spend on medicines, regardless of how many they use or what they cost. The suggestion that companies can charge what they want couldn’t be further from the truth.”

The ABPI's full response to Labour's proposals is  here.