Group items tagged

Asian Media Group will hold the inaugural Pharmacy Business Diversity Conference on Thursday December 9 - a ground-breaking event exploring and showcasing diversity and inclusion in the pharmaceutical industry. The conference, themed 'Change the Ratio', will be be chaired by BBC presenter Clive Myrie and held virtually between 10am and 5pm. While both both RPS and ABPI are supporting the conference as associate sponsors, Well Pharmacy, the UK's largest independent pharmacy chain, is the headline sponsor of the event that will have some of Britain's most inspiring leaders and influential diversity and inclusion practitioners. These leaders will share their knowledge and experience whilst offering tangible steps to positively promote and implement diversity, inclusion and equality in workplace. Check pharmacy business website for more information.

The British Generic Manufacturers Association (BGMA) on Monday alerted the Health and Social Care Committee that medicines shortages have increased and are "around double what they were a year ago." BGMA chief executive Mark Samuels told the committee that they have been highlighting the medicine shortage risk to ministers since July 2021 and the association is "very concerned" about the current situation. "We've been monitoring it for several years now, and as you saw in the written evidence, shortages have increased. They're around double what they were a year ago. We have them at 101 shortages in February this year," said Samuels. Dr Rick Greville, director of distribution and supply at the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry (ABPI), highlighted that the problem of drug shortages in the UK is a "long-standing issue" and the scarcity of certain medications "continues to be challenging".

The British Generic Manufacturers Association (BGMA) has warned of the significant implications for future supply as a result of the crippling VPAS rate. The warning comes after the association's judicial review into the Government's decision to bar it from being a full part of the negotiations for the next five-year VPAS period was dismissed. The voluntary scheme for branded medicines pricing and access (VPAS) is an agreement between the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC), NHS England and The Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry (ABPI). The scheme aims to limit increases in spending on branded medicines to no more than 2% per year via a rebate system which is charged on companies' sales revenues. Two years ago, the rate was 5.1%, but in 2023 it has soared to 26.5%. All biosimilars and a proportion of the generics market falls into the scheme.

The British Generic Manufacturers Association (BGMA) has sought a judicial review of the Department of Health and Social Care's (DHSC) decision to negotiate a new Voluntary Scheme for branded medicines with the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry (ABPI). Mark Samuels, Chief Executive of BGMA said: "The Government has decided not to involve the trade body representing these medicine suppliers in its negotiations on the voluntary scheme for branded medicine pricing (VPAS). "We are deeply concerned by this decision. It has left us no choice but to take legal action." "While not all generic drugs fall within VPAS, four out of ten products in the current scheme are branded generics or biosimilars. As the representative trade body for both generic and biosimilar UK manufacturers, we must play a full part in the VPAS negotiations for the next period of the scheme from 2024 to 2028." "The VPAS tax has risen five-fold in under two years, an unprecedented tax increase. Yet our sector currently has no input into the negotiations on future schemes or rates; this is untenable as any decisions made on VPAS could significantly define the future of our sector in the UK and its ability to supply the NHS. The association had raised its full participation in the negotiations with the Government last November.

The British Generic Manufacturers Association (BGMA) has published a positioning paper which sets out the objectives that need to be delivered through the next Voluntary Pricing and Access Scheme (VPAS) on Thursday (15 June). The paper details how a financially sustainable VPAS can support widened medicines access to patients. VPAS is an agreement between the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC), NHS England and The Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry (ABPI). The scheme aims to limit increases in spending on branded medicines to no more than 2% per year via a rebate system which is charged on companies' sales revenues. Two years ago, the rate was 5.1% but for 2023 it has soared to 26.5%. Last year, the association had raised concerns over the rise in the VPAS rate for 2023 to 26.5 per cent. "The rocketing rate is in large part due to the growth in spend in on-patent medicines since 2019. Looking at the four completed years of the current VPAS scheme, data shows that the average annual growth rate for on-patent medicine sales value from 2019-22 was 18% compared to just 2% for off-patent products," said the association.

The government has launched a consultation into radically changing the Statutory Scheme for branded medicines (known as the Statutory Scheme). The consultation comes as delicate negotiations for replacing the alternative Voluntary Scheme are underway, potentially undermining these talks, while also further damaging industry confidence in the UK as a viable place to research, launch and supply medicine. The government proposals seek to hold average revenue clawback rates under the Statutory Scheme at historic highs of between 21-27%, compared to the pre-pandemic averages of 9.4% for the Statutory Scheme (2019-2021), and 6.88% for the Voluntary Scheme (2014-2021). The accompanying cost-benefit analysis ignores any negative impact this may have on medicine supply and wrongly claims it will boost investment. The consultation comes on the heels of government data last week showing UK life sciences foreign direct investment (FDI) fell by 47% between 2021 and 2022, down by £900m year on year. This large fall in investment coincided with a rise in the main UK clawback rate under the Voluntary Scheme from 5% to 15%, and led to the UK falling from 2nd to 9th out of 18 comparator countries for life sciences FDI in 2022. The Voluntary Scheme clawback rate now sits at a record 26.5% in 2023.