UK's NHS drug prices face OFT demands

The Pharmaceutical Price Regulation Scheme, which has set prices for the supply of prescription drugs to the UK's National Health Service since 1957, faces an imminent shake-up as a long-awaited report by the Office of Fair Trading is due to be published at the end of this month (Marketletter April 3, 2006).

Calls for reform have come from smaller drugmakers and parallel trading wholesalers, according to a report in the Financial Times. The UK government is also considering giving the NHS a greater say in purchasing negotiations, reflecting the dominant share of the market taken by the public sector. The Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry has defending the PPRS on the grounds that the five-yearly price revisions provide stability and value.