Drug firms win right to offer NHS cut-price treatments

Published on Wednesday 25 March 2009 21:12

MONEY-BACK offers and cut-price deals on new drugs were yesterday given the go-ahead by the Scottish Government in efforts to improve access to treatments in Scotland.

Nicola Sturgeon, the health secretary, confirmed drugs companies would be allowed to put forward these offers when making applications for their products to be used on the NHS.

She also announced boards would be given new guidance to ensure that exceptional prescribing measures were equally applied across Scotland.

And new advice has also been issued to health boards that will, in some circumstances, let patients top-up with private treatment, without losing out on free NHS care.

So-called "patient access schemes" have been used in England to bring down the cost of new drugs. They mean drugs companies can offer to share some of the costs of treatments with the NHS, meaning that products which would otherwise not be approved for use are made available.

Ms Sturgeon told MSPs that a national framework would be created so the Scottish Medicines Consortium (SMC) would be able to consider offers from drugs companies when making its decisions.

She said that with a total drugs expenditure of 1.22 billion – almost 10 per cent of the NHS budget – it was vital that every pound delivered the most benefit for patients.

Ms Sturgeon said:

"My objective is to ensure that we have a system in place that is, from end to end, robust, fair and well understood."

She added that NHS boards would be given new guidance on introducing new medicines.

A framework would also ensure a "consistent approach" to exceptional prescribing – situations where a patient applies for funding for a drug not approved by the SMC for NHS use.