NHS spending squeeze on new drugs

NHS spending squeeze on new drugs: Source: PharmaTimes

According to a PharmaTimes report,  the Office of Health Economics has forecast an NHS spending squeeze on innovative medicines over the next three years.  
The annual drugs bill in the UK is currently around £10 billion, which equates to approximately 10% of NHS expenditure, having risen around 3.5% a year between 2007 and 2011.  
However,  figures suggest that whilst the total amount spent on the NHS is set to climb by 2.5% a year between 2011 and 2015, cash sunk into new innovative branded medicines will rise by just 1.3%.  
And while the total medicines spend is predicted to grow around 3.7% annually up to 2015, in three years' time drugs launched between 2012 and 2015 are expected to account for less than 2% of this expenditure.  
These figures have consequently sparked concern throughout the research-based pharmaceutical industry that the NHS is not investing enough on the most innovative medicines and that patients in the ...NELM News