Spending Review – NHS must invest more in proven innovations, says ABPI

The government spending review has concluded with a 3% per year increase for health and the NHS.

As part of fixing the broken NHS, the innovative pharmaceutical industry is calling for greater focus to be put on investing in those areas of health spending that have the strongest evidence for both value for money and for directly improving patient outcomes.

Richard Torbett, Chief Executive of the ABPI, said: “Despite tight constraints, the government has rightly recognised that sustained investment is needed to fix the NHS and deliver the care patients deserve. The key question is how this will be spent – and whether it will be used to improve patients' outcomes.

“Over the past decade, accounting for inflation, the NHS budget has grown by a third in real terms (33%), while investment in the most rigorously cost-benefit tested part of health spending, investment in the medicines needed to treat people, has fallen from around 11% to 9% of the total health budget.

“The NHS must seize this opportunity to invest in the proven technologies and innovations that will support its reform agenda and improve patient outcomes. This means making sure patients can access the treatments they need and readying the system to roll out the new medicines that can prevent ill health and improve the lives of many more.”

Key facts:

• UK treatable and avoidable mortality is among the highest in the G7, with UK mortality from treatable causes at a rate of 69 per 100,000. This is half again more than Japan, France and Canada
• The UK invests just 9% of its overall healthcare spending on medicines, compared to 18% in Spain, 17% in Germany and Italy, and 15% in France.
• Over the past decade, growth in the UK branded medicine market has been capped at between 1.1% (2014-2018) and 2% (2019-2023) per year. After accounting for inflation, this growth has declined by over a tenth (11%). In the same period, the NHS budget grew by a third in real terms (33%).
• England lying sixth in the EFPIA WAIT indicator rankings for availability of new medicines licenced in 2020-2023, However, when considering the level of restricted access though (mainly due to optimised recommendations), England falls to tenth place among its European peers.
• The Tony Blair Institute estimated that a 20% reduction in the incidence of six major disease categories that keep people out of work, including cancer, cardiovascular disease (CVD), chronic respiratory illness, diabetes and mental-health and musculoskeletal disorders, could boost GDP by around 0.74% within five years, with increased tax revenues of £13.0bn by 2030, and reduced benefit payments of £10.2bn by 2035
• Analysis for ABPI by PwC suggests that if the UK increased use across just four types of medicines (DOACs, SGLT2 inhibitors, severe asthma biologics and vasopressin V2-receptor antagonists) for those patients NICE recommends them for, this could deliver:
  • 1.2m more eligible NHS patients getting treatment.
  • 429,000 additional years of life in good health for patients.
  • £17.9bn in productivity gains for the UK and £5.5bn paid directly back to the Exchequer through taxes