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Written question asked by Richard Foord (Liberal Democrat) on Monday, 7 July 2025, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Wednesday, 9 July 2025. It was answered by Karin Smyth (Labour) on Wednesday, 16 July 2025 on behalf of the Department of Health and Social Care.

Immunosuppression: Drugs

Question

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department has made an assessment of the reasons for the price differential between (a) ciclosporin and (b) other generic immunosuppressant drugs sold in UK pharmacies compared to the same drugs available overseas; and if he will take steps to review (i) NHS procurement and (ii) pricing arrangements to ensure better value for money.

Answer

The Department has made no assessment of the reasons for the price difference between ciclosporin and other generic immunosuppressant drugs sold in United Kingdom pharmacies compared to other countries.

The UK has well established mechanisms to control the level of spend on branded medicines. The voluntary scheme for branded medicines pricing, access, and growth and the statutory scheme for branded medicines, control the growth in sales of branded medicines, and the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence’s evaluations ensure that spend on new medicines represents a clinically and cost-effective use of National Health Service resources.

For generic medicines, the Government’s policy is freedom of pricing. Community pharmacies buy the drugs they need to dispense against NHS prescriptions and are reimbursed for these according to the prices and ‘rules’ as set out in the Drug Tariff. The reimbursement arrangements include an amount of medicines margin in 2025/26, as allowed for as part of Community Pharmacy Contractual Framework funding. The system incentivises pharmacy contractors to source items as cheaply as possible, so they individually get to keep more medicine margin. This leads to competition and downward pressure on selling prices, which in turn leads to lower reimbursement prices and lower costs to the NHS.

Secondary information

Type
Written question
Reference
65462
Session
2024-26
Subjects
Drugs Procurement Prices Immunosuppression
Link
View this Written question on www.parliament.uk