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UK Pharma Companies to Feel the Pressure of NHS Red Lists
- Publisher：
- Publication：2011/4/15
The UK National Health Service's decision to prevent family doctors from prescribing drugs will have a negative impact on the pharmaceutical industry, a health expert has warned.
Janet Knowles, partner and head of the life sciences team at law firm Eversheds said that under the new scheme, pharmaceutical companies are more likely to find their drugs 'red-listed', which means they can only be prescribed by a hospital and not a GP.
The measure is designed to save money by restricting access to drugs that are often among the more expensive.
Knowles said, "The pressures on pharmaceutical companies are already high. The regulatory hurdles that have to be crossed before they get a drug approved at all amount to a cost of at least $1bn. Added to that, in the UK, they have to satisfy NICE to get their drug taken up fully by the NHS.
"The only comfort is that for the more serious conditions a patient is likely to be under the care of a hospital consultant and so may get given the prescription."
NHS managers are preventing family doctors from prescribing drugs for conditions such as diabetes, heart disease and osteoporosis.
The decision also means that many patients will find it more difficult to obtain the most effective drugs free on the NHS, even though they have been approved by the National Institute of Health and Clinical Excellence.
Source: pharmaceutical-technology