UK's PPRS Provides "Appropriate Balance" Says MoH

UK's PPRS Provides "Appropriate Balance" Says DoH With the publication of the first report to parliament on the Pharmaceutical Price Regulation Scheme, UK Minister for Health Gerald Malone said this report "shows that the PPRS has enabled the government to maintain an appropriate balance between the needs of the National Health Service and the pharmaceutical industry in a way which has been of benefit to both parties over many years." In principle, the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry agrees with this conclusion, an ABPI spokesman told the Marketletter.

The report comes as a result of a 1994 recommendation by the House of Commons Health Committee that the Department of Health should publish an annual report on the PPRS to satisfy the desire for greater transparency in the Scheme's operation. The current Scheme has been operational since October 1, 1993, and is designed to run for five years.

The ABPI has set up a task force to consider the PPRS longer term, and whether the industry wants the current Scheme to stay in place at the next negotiations or not, or whether there are changes that the industry would want implemented.