ABPI ‘fears for future of UK research’ ahead of pricing talks
pharmafile | June 7, 2012 | News story | Sales and Marketing | ABPI, Drug pricing, PPRS, Stephen Whitehead, VBP
The UK pharmaceutical industry says too great a focus on ‘breakthrough’ drugs could undermine the future of medical research in the country.
The ABPI’s chief executive Stephen Whitehead has made a warning ahead of negotiations with the government over a new pricing system for medicines.
“I fear for the future of UK medical research”, says Whitehead.
Nearly two years ago, the government announced plans for a new Value-Based Medicines system which it wants to see introduced by January 2014, but the idea has won few friends among the pharma industry.
The concept behind VBP is for medicines prices to reflect more accurately the value of a given drug to patients and wider society – but critics say this is easier said than done, and that many benefits of the existing system will be lost.
The ABPI says the government is too focused on encouraging ‘breakthrough drugs’ at the expense of significant gains for patients from incremental innovation in medicines.
Whitehead says this approach could be so damaging that it threatens the future of pharmaceutical medical research in the UK (even though there is no direct link between prices and where research is conducted).
The comment comes shortly before the Department of Health and the ABPI begin their first proper round of negotiations on the new proposals.
Whitehead comments: “The pricing negotiations will decide the future of pharmaceutical research in the UK. If we minimise the reward for innovation in the UK, then our manufacturers will go abroad. Our industry, our economy, and our healthcare system will suffer – UK patients will suffer.”
The fear is that the new tiered pricing system will be created, with only the highest prices going to drug deemed ‘true breakthroughs’. The government might then deny this status to virtually all new drugs, thereby driving down the price of medicines.
Whitehead added: “The government wants to target resources at big breakthroughs, but the science shows us that developments in medicine are made in small steps.”
It is also perhaps significant that the ABPI has not even referred to the VBP system by name, signalling that the sector wants to move away from the idea as much as possible.
The government has already been persuaded that VBP should only be used for new medicines, after the ABPI pointed out the difficulty of re-assessing all medicines currently on the market through a new system.
Many in the sector would like to see this watering down continue, with the present Pharmaceutical Pricing Regulation Scheme (PPRS) being retained as far as possible, with just a few VBP-type elements added.
Whitehead concluded: “Manufacturers take a £1 billon gamble when they decide to create a medicine in the UK, and they won’t take that plunge if there is no reward for success. The UK is a global leader in medical research and development, but we have to do all we can to prolong and build on this success; we have to ensure that the huge risks discoverers and developers take are rewarded.”
To highlight the different types of medical innovation, the ABPI recently commissioned a report called The Many Faces of Innovation. The report, which is published on the day of Whitehead’s one year anniversary as chief executive, examines the different types of innovation, and the importance of iterative medical developments. The report is available here: The Many Faces of Innovation.
The Department of Health has responded to Whitehead’s remarks by saying there was ‘no question’ of incremental innovation that benefits patients not being rewarded in the new system.
“Incremental improvements can be important – for example, reductions in side effects can mean that more patients are able to benefit from a treatment,” he added. “Where a treatment offers improvements over alternatives, this will be reflected in its ‘core’ pharmaco-economic evaluation, which will take place under Value-Based Pricing,” the Department of Health added.
Andrew McConaghie
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