UK's ABPI says trust is "vital" for NHS future

Nigel Brooksby, president of the Association of the British Pharmceutical Industry, has spoken at the Financial Times' Global Pharmaceutical and Biotechnology Conference in London, UK, of the need for a renewed level of trust between the pharmaceutical industry, government and patients. He is understood to view the growing trend for public distrust as a matter of "particular concern for health care."

Mr Brooksby, in a statement, also said that "a key driver of distrust was a result of how the National Health Service is financed and structured and the increasing pressure on its budget from an aging population, as well as the rising cost of technology and consumer expectations."

As a consequence of this, the ABPI president said that "patients don't know that medicine prices are regulated [in the UK] by government, and that the average price of medicines has actually fallen by more than 20% in real terms over the past decade."