It is vital to ensure a ‘stable and sustainable’ generic medicines market following the recent UK-US trade agreement, pharmacy leaders have said in a joint letter to the House of Lords Public Services Committee.
The UK-US agreement, and the commitment to increase prices for new branded medicines, must not be funded by ‘further pressure on the generic medicines market’, urged the letter from the Company Chemists’ Association (CCA), Community Pharmacy England (CPE), the Healthcare Distribution Association (HDA UK), and Medicines UK.
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Generic medicines are cheaper versions of branded medicines that contain the same active ingredients and work in the same way. Any manufacturer can market generic versions of a branded medicine when its patent expires.
The letter said that for many years, competitive procurement of medicines for the NHS by community pharmacies has driven down the price of generic medicines but these prices have ‘hit rock bottom’.
The reimbursement price for more than 850 million generic medicine packs is 99p or less, for up to a month’s supply, and this is ‘simply not sustainable,’ the letter added.
It suggests three actions to make the UK supply chain more resilient:
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- Recognising that both branded and generic medicines require funding models that incentivise participation and competition.
- Creating a procurement model whereby all parts of the domestic supply chain can operate in a financially sustainable way.
- Reviewing the role of Drug Tariff pricing and retained margin, to reduce the number of medicines supplied to the NHS at a loss.
The House of Lords Public Services Committee is currently conducting an inquiry into medicines security to understand the causes of medicine shortages and the UK’s ability to predict and prevent them.
All the organisations involved in this joint letter gave oral evidence to the Committee on 5 November. And on Wednesday (8 December), the Committee will hear from Zubir Ahmed MP, parliamentary under-secretary of state for health innovation and safety. This final oral evidence session will be followed by a report with recommendations for policymakers.
It was announced last week that the UK had agreed a 0% tariff on all pharmaceutical exports to the US for at least three years, in a deal that will 'benefit tens of thousands' of patients.
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The landmark trade deal – part of the UK-US Economic Prosperity Deal– aims to expand access to vital drugs, safeguard the country’s medicine supply chain, and drive investment, according to the Government.
The government also said it will increase the price threshold at which it determines medicines to be too expensive by around 25%.
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