PPRS saves NHS £1.3bn over five years
Medicine price cuts of 4.5 per cent agreed in October 1999 had saved the NHS £1.3bn by the end of 2004, the Department of Health's ninth
report on the Pharmaceutical Price Regulation Scheme reveals.
The report also confirms that all major companies have signed up to the
successor five-year scheme, which involves 7
per cent price cuts, launched
at the beginning of last year (PJ, 18/25 December 2004, p873).
Most scheme members required to submit annual financial returns (AFRs)
from 1999 did so in accordance with the agreed timetable. But for those
AFRs not received on time in 2003 there was a “significant increase” in
the average delay.
The report presented to Parliament adds: “There remains concern
about whether submitted AFRs meet the degree of transparency required
by the scheme. The department rigorously examines and questions such
returns, which led to an increase in the average time taken to clear.
Two returns remain uncleared.”
In September last year the Office of Fair Trading announced a market
study of the scheme to assess whether it is the most effective means
of securing value for money for the NHS, while offering appropriate incentives
for pharmaceutical companies to invest in new medicines for the future.
The final report is due to be published in the first three months of
2007. |
The
Pharmaceutical Journal
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