UK's value-based pricing unlikely to improve patient drug access, says think tank

The proposed reforms to the way that medicines are priced within the UK’s National Health Service are unlikely to result in improved patient access to innovative medicines, according to the Stockholm Network, a pro-market think tank. As part of its submission to the Department of Health consultation on value-based pricing (VBP) of medicines, which was also commented on by the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry (ABPI: The Pharma Letter March 16), the Stockholm Network argues that a collection of misleading assumptions are impeding constructive reform that could ultimately see wider access for patients to new, innovative medicines.

The submission argues that there seem to be very few guarantees from these reforms in regard to patient access and that the maintenance of pricing ceilings in itself implies that patients will still be denied medicines that are deemed too expensive. It also laments the intention to terminate both the Cancer Drug Fund and patient access schemes, which had provided a short-term solution if patients continued to be denied treatments.

Helen Disney, chief executive of the Stockholm Network, says: “For too long now patients in the UK have been denied access to the innovative medicines that they need and which patients in many other European countries have been able to obtain. Any reforms that aim to amend reimbursement in the NHS should first and foremost focus on this challenge in the system and endeavour to reassure patients that the medicines which they and their physicians feel are necessary for them can generally be acquired.”