Concerns over retained purchase profits allayed
Steve Dunn: warned that DoH is on track to take extra £200m |
Concerns that the Department of Health looks set to take £200m
too much out of retained purchase profits have been allayed by the Pharmaceutical
Services Negotiating Committee.
Steve Dunn, group managing director of AAH Pharmaceuticals, has warned: “After
analysing our sales figures since April, I believe that the DoH is currently
on track to take an extra £200m out of retained purchase profits.
Estimates for category M sales to date show that the April and July Drug
Tariff recalibrations equate to an approximate annualised reduction of £500m
from the supply chain.”
However, the PSNC has said that it is monitoring the recovery of purchase
profits and will ensure that only the target £300m is removed.
Commenting on the new arrangements for generics
reimbursement that were
announced last week (PJ, 2 July, p3), Mr Dunn said: “Wholesalers
and pharmacists had imagined that the new system would lead to a more
stable and predictable environment than the one that we currently find
ourselves in. Instead, that environment is one marked by major volatility
of the generics tariff from quarter to quarter.”
In a statement, the PSNC explained that category M prices are changed
every quarter with the target being to remove £75m from generics
reimbursement (so a total of £300m is removed annually). “If
there has been any over- or under-recovery in practice, adjustments are
made as part of the quarterly review,” it added.
The PSNC went on to explain that the substantial changes to category
M prices for July to September were mainly due to the removal of amlodipine
from the category M list. “PSNC is monitoring the impact of these
changes to ensure that over the course of the year only the target £300m
is removed.” |
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