7 June 2017 - New UK regulation seeks to clarify and extend the Government’s powers to regulate the cost of medicines and medical supplies and to collect sales and pricing information from pharma.

The UK’s Health Service Medical Supplies (Costs) Act 2017 obtained royal assent on 27 April in the process known as the ‘wash up’ – wherein legislation is rushed through before a general election.

The Act, which has broad cross-party support, clarifies and extends the Government’s powers to regulate the cost of medicines and medical supplies and to collect sales and pricing information. Its primary purpose is to limit the NHS’s spiralling drugs bill: NHS spend on medicines is estimated to have been over £15.2 billion in 2015-16 and, as Secretary of State for Health, Jeremy Hunt, stated, these costs can “only continue to grow”.

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