UK drug prices down 21% but Britain still spends less on medicines than Europe

Although the prices of medicines in the UK are more than 21% lower in real terms than they were 10 years ago, the percentage of the Department of Health's budget that the National Health Service spends on medicines has dropped to 11%, according to new figures from the the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry.

These figures also confirm that the UK spends less on medicines than most other European countries, with the annual cost of prescriptions written by British doctors averaging just L205 ($357.40) per person. This is despite the fact that the number of NHS prescriptions dispensed increased by 37 million last year to 826 million in total.

The balance of trade in pharmaceuticals - last year the highest of any sector in UK industry - has shown a decline. Medicines earned a trade surplus for the UK of L3.42 billion in 2005, a drop of 8% on the previous year, when the figure stood at L3.71 billion.