ABPI Logo
  • Developing medicines
    • General Election hub
    • Brexit
    • Life Sciences Industrial Strategy
    • Regulatory science
    • New Medicines & Data
    • Academic Collaboration, Education & Skills
    • Careers in the pharmaceutical industry
    • ABPI Medical Representatives Exam
    • Clinical trials - How the UK is researching medicines of the future
  • Accessing medicines
    • How medicines are priced in the UK
    • Working with the NHS
    • Supply chain
    • Antimicrobial resistance (AMR)
    • Vaccines
    • Rare diseases
  • Our ethics
    • ABPI Code of Practice
    • Disclosure UK
    • We Won't Rest
    • Appropriate prescribing
  • Member representation
    • Events
    • Full membership
    • Working with our members​
    • ABPI Members List
    • Membership benefits
  • Who We Are
  • Media
  • Publications
  • Facts and Figures
  • Contact Us
MY ABPI LOGIN
 
  • The Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry
  • Accessing medicines
  • How medicines are priced in the UK
  • What was the PPRS?

What was the PPRS?

The UK has a number of different mechanisms for ensuring value for money and cost control in the NHS. In addition to NICE which evaluates cost-effectiveness, the Pharmaceutical Pricing Regulation Scheme (PPRS) helps controls the amount the NHS spends on new medicines.

This voluntary scheme has been in place for over 50 years and helps to provide the pharmaceutical industry and the Government with a stable environment to introduce medicines into the NHS, making sure patients can get access to the newest, most effective treatments available, while helping to sustain a thriving UK pharmaceutical industry. 

A voluntary scheme has been negotiated every five years, with the next scheme due to start in January 2019.

The current PPRS – negotiated in 2014 at a time of austerity in the UK – sought to cap the growth of NHS spend on branded medicines at an agreed rate, with any overspend paid back to the NHS. This was to provide stability of spend to the NHS and offer an incentive to use new medicines at no extra cost.

To date, the industry has paid back over £3 billion to the Department of Health and Social Care for NHS spending above the cap. That’s around a million pounds a day.

We know with absolute certainty that the growth of NHS’ spend on medicines under this PPRS over five years has remained stable at 1.1%. When taking inflation into account, that’s actually a 0.4% decline. By contrast the wider NHS spend has risen at 3.3% over the same period.

Companies who choose not to be in the voluntary scheme are subject to statutory pricing controls which impose a set price cut to medicines not within the PPRS scheme.  Older – generic – medicines do not have a similar scheme, however, for the most part strong competition keeps prices extremely low.

How medicines are priced in the UK

  • How are new medicines developed?
  • How are medicines priced?
  • The Voluntary Scheme on branded medicines
  • What is the life cycle of a medicine?
  • Improving access to medicine in the UK
  • The future of medicine
  • What was the PPRS?

ABPI

The Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry is a company limited by guarantee registered in England and Wales 
(registered number 09826787) and its registered office is at 7th Floor Southside,105 Victoria Street, London, SW1E 6QT.
Telephone +44 (0) 207 9303477

© ABPI 2019
  • Twitter Logo
  • LinkedIn
  • YouTube Logo

Devolved Nations

  • Cymru Wales
  • Northern Ireland
  • Scotland

Quick Links

  • ABPI Exam
  • Disclosure UK
  • Frequently Asked Questions
  • Careers
  • Schools
  • Acronym buster

Website Info

  • Terms and conditions
  • Accessibility
  • Cookie Policy

Prescription Medicines Code of Practice Authority (PMCPA)

The Prescription Medicines Code of Practice Authority (PMCPA) was established by The Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry to operate the ABPI Code of Practice for the Pharmaceutical Industry independently of the ABPI. The PMCPA is a division of ABPI which is a company registered in England and Wales (registered number 09826787) with its registered office at 7th Floor, Southside, 105 Victoria Street, London SW1E 6QT.

Office of Health Economics (OHE)

The Office of Health Economics (OHE) is a company limited by guarantee registered in England and Wales (registered number 09848965) and its registered office is at 7th Floor Southside, 105 Victoria Street, London, SW1E 6QT. OHE provides independent research, advisory and consultancy services on policy implications and economic issues within the pharmaceutical, health care and biotechnology sectors.