New controls on drug prices will benefit patients, say health economists

Proposed new controls on the price of branded drugs to the NHS should strike the right balance between giving patients access to new medicines and ensuring that the NHS doesn’t spend too much on new drugs, health economists have said.The government is currently consulting on proposed changes to the statutory scheme for branded medicines,1 which include a new approach to control spending on older branded drugs by levying different rates on them from those on newer medicines, referred to as “the lifecycle adjustment.”This would be a departure from the current statutory scheme and the voluntary scheme (VPAS), which both require companies to pay back a percentage of their sales each year to the government. In the current scheme companies pay the same percentage regardless of how long a drug has been on the market or whether it is subject to competitive pressure on prices.The government aims to cap the growth…
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