UK drugs groups seek court block on NHS price limits
The UK drugs industry is going to court in an attempt to stop the country’s taxpayer-funded National Health Service from imposing new limits on the price it will pay for medicines. The action follows a government crackdown in April that limits funding to medicines forecast to cost the NHS more than £20m per year in any of their first three years of use...The industry has complained that the policy may prevent patients from securing cutting-edge medicines for the most serious diseases...The decision, [however] has divided the industry...UK-based GSK said it was “not supportive of this action. Industry and government need to work together to improve adoption of new medicines in the UK.”...Anglo-Swedish AstraZeneca also made clear it had reservations, saying the company was continuing to “champion dialogue”...The NHS is in the middle of a severe funding crisis, which is forcing the health service to find new ways to control costs...The reservations expressed by GSK and AstraZeneca are a reflection of nervousness in some boardrooms at a time when pharmaceutical companies are working closely with government to secure to secure the best deal on future regulation, once Britain leaves the EU. [Refers to: AstraZeneca, Gilead, Merck & Co., Novartis, Pfizer, QuintilesIMS, Sanofi, Vertex]