ABPI response to NHS 10-Year Health Plan

The NHS 10-Year Health Plan gets it right on genomics and advanced therapies, as well as accelerated clinical trials and supporting participation in research. However, innovative medicines could play a far greater role in revolutionising healthcare. The plan also sends a worrying signal about limiting patient and doctor choices around the best treatment for them.

The plan acknowledges the impact medicines have on health, as well as their societal and economic benefits, yet there are no commitments to increase the government’s investment in medicines.

The UK now spends less on medicines than most of its peers, with medicines accounting for just nine per cent of the UK’s healthcare spend, compared to countries like Germany (17 per cent), Italy (17 per cent), and France (15 per cent). [1]

Despite the proven benefits of medicines and vaccines in preventing disease and treating it early, the UK has had a 10 per cent decline in the availability of new medicines, compared to 2 per cent in the EU as a whole. [2]

Responding to the Plan, Richard Torbett, Chief Executive of the ABPI, said: “Parts of the NHS 10 Year Plan, such as boosting the NHS’s offer on genomic medicine, and accelerating clinical trials, are exactly right and very welcome. This will transform patients’ lives and take better advantage of the precision medicines and benefits of research that our sector can offer.

“However, the successful implementation of the NHS 10-Year Plan will require a fundamental shift in how the UK approaches innovative medicines and vaccines. For too long, the UK has viewed innovation as a cost to be avoided, rather than an investment that can improve health outcomes and system productivity.

“The UK must reverse decades of disinvestment in innovative medicines that is increasingly preventing NHS patients from accessing medicines that are available in other countries.”

According to the 10-Year Plan, and further to some of the toughest global cost-effectiveness requirements already in place, the government will develop a ‘single national formulary’ to replace local lists of approved medicines, with a new formulary oversight board that will be responsible for sequencing products based on clinical and cost effectiveness. NICE will also look at retiring its guidance for existing innovations.

On these specific proposals, Richard Torbett, said: “The proposal for a new national formulary that seeks to sequence products raises a number of questions and concerns. Any measure that reduces the many layers of bureaucracy and inefficiencies in the system and speeds equitable adoption of medicines is welcome. However, moves that push prescribers into adhering to set treatment rankings, alongside tasking NICE with identifying innovations that can be retired, risks restricting patient and clinician choice.

“We urge the government to move carefully and collaborate with industry, clinicians and patient organisations to work through potential unintended consequences and ensure patients will not be left without the medicines they need.

“At a time when the government has said it wants to fix the challenging UK commercial environment for medicines, it should avoid adding any additional barriers which could make the UK a less attractive place to launch new innovations.”

To help the government fulfil its goal of an NHS fit for the future, the ABPI is calling on the government to increase the proportion of NHS spend on medicines and vaccines to internationally comparable levels, embedding research as ‘business as usual’ in the NHS, and improving system readiness for medicines and vaccines that prevent the onset or progression of disease.