Posted by Michael Wonder on 30 Jul 2016
A pill too hard to swallow: how the NHS is limiting access to high priced drugs
27 July 2016 - A joint investigation by The BMJ and Cambridge and Bath universities uncovers how NHS England tried to limit access to expensive new drugs for hepatitis C.
Highly priced medicines are challenging health systems around the world in unprecedented ways. And none more so than the new sofosbuvir based antiviral drugs introduced by Gilead Sciences in 2014. Offering greatly reduced treatment durations and high cure rates, these medicines hold out the real prospect of eliminating hepatitis C in countries where they are widely administered, with all that implies for long term savings in healthcare costs.
But launch of these drugs has ignited a global debate about high priced medicines. With launch prices ranging from around $90 000 (£69 000; €82 000) per patient in the US to almost £35 000 in England and €41 000 in France, they have sparked a US Senate investigation, been raised at both the G7 and G20 summits, and has been a major consideration for to a UN high level panel on access to medicines.
