The price concession for Atorvastatin 80mg has been increased to £3.91 from the previously set £3.45 for prescriptions dispensed in July, the Community Pharmacy
England has said. The Department of Health and Social Care additionally introduced a concession price of £3.38 for Atorvastatin 20mg.
"In July, our Dispensing and Supply Team experienced an unusually high influx of reports from pharmacies struggling to acquire Atorvastatin 80mg tablets at the
listed Drug Tariff price," said CPE.
CPE requested a price concession early in the month. However, after extended discussions, an agreement on the price wasn't reached. Consequently, on July 31st, the
DHSC imposed a concession of £3.45.
Addressing enduring pharmacy concerns over the pricing, CPE intensified advocacy with DHSC. This endeavour resulted in the revision of the Atorvastatin 80mg tablet
concession price to £3.91 for prescriptions submitted and dispensed in July.
According to CPE, this adjusted price sufficiently covers costs as reported by the majority of pharmacy owners.
However, DHSC has refrained from modifying concessionary prices for the other two requested lines by CPE. DHSC communicated that their team's data collection for
July, employing real-time sales and volume data, was incongruent with the adjustment of these prices, CPE further said.
The UK Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) has signed a new US$10 million (7.8 million pounds) grant agreement with global non-profit organisation,
FIND.
This extends the UK government's support to FIND through the Global AMR Innovation Fund (GAMRIF) for another four years.
FIND recently announced the GAMRIF funding, which will be used to support its three-pronged strategy to prevent AMR emergence and halt its development.
Dr Cassandra Kelly-Cirino, Vice President, Health Programmes at FIND, said: "Lack of essential diagnostics that can be accessed by people when and where they are
needed is jeopardizing global efforts to combat AMR everywhere. We are grateful to GAMRIF for the continued support as we work in partnership on this multi-faceted
strategy to save lives."