Value-based pricing won’t encourage innovation, says ABPI

pharmafile | September 23, 2011 | News story | Sales and Marketing value-based pricing 

The ABPI has come out against the government’s reforms of drug pricing in the UK, saying its plans need a rethink.

The UK industry body’s new chief executive Stephen Whitehead told The Telegraph the current regime had fostered a strong pharmaceutical industry and that the proposed system “doesn’t actually seem to do anything to encourage innovation”.

The government is planning to end the current PPRS pricing scheme, which allows pharma a reasonable amount of flexibility to set its own prices before launch, and replace it with a value-based pricing system.

VBP would allow the government to set drug prices based on certain criteria, and is due to come into effect from January 2014.

Whitehead maintained that the ABPI welcomed the new scheme, but would rather see PPRS remain in a primary role, and then see VBP incorporated into the PPRS over the coming years, instead of replacing it instantly.

He said: “We would like there to be a single holistic scheme that is low on bureaucracy, efficient, patient-focused and reflects an element of freedom of pricing which we have with the PPRS because it’s profit controlled.”

Ben Adams

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