NHS paying too much to drug firms

Glass House Mon Feb 19, 2007 at 10:37:53 PM GMT Print-friendly version Facebook

The NHS is paying drug companies hundreds of millions of pounds too much for branded medicines, according to the Office of Fair Trading.



Seems like the sort of thing we'd discuss :)

tags: , (all tags)

Display: Sort:
NHS paying too much to drug firms | 1 comment (1 topical)

Re: NHS paying too much to drug firms (#1)

by Suresh Pushpananthan on Thu Feb 22, 2007 at 12:04:36 PM GMT

You're right. Unfortunately the price is determined by the willingness of US health insurers to pay for them. They are the biggest customers. The costs of developing new drugs is huge - something of the order of $200 million in research and development. However, the profits from some of the very successful drugs are in the billions per year!

THe NHS pricing authority should be able to to get a better deal on the biggest selling drugs such as drugs to reduce stomach acid, statins and blood pressure medication.

The biggest problem with drug pricing is still the prices charged to developing countries. Antiretrovural drugs (for managing HIV) are still far too expensive, even though some are being produced as generics.

These companies don't find it worth their trouble to invest in R&D for vaccines for tackling the world's biggest killers: AIDS, TB and malaria. For that we need Bill Gates and Warren Buffett! What kind of world are we living in?

 


NHS paying too much to drug firms | 1 comment (1 topical)