UK medicine pricing
Medicines bring huge value to NHS patients. The development of new medicines is uncertain, costly, and involves significant rates of failure. The pharmaceutical industry spends $160 billion per year on research and development.
NICE Methods Review
The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence is undergoing a review of its processes and methods for health technology evaluation. This review is highly significant as it will set the framework for how NICE decides which new medicines will be made available to NHS patients for years to come.
Vaccines
Every year, 2 – 3 million lives are saved across the world because of immunisation and only clean water rivals vaccines at reducing infectious diseases and deaths.
Advanced Therapy Medicinal Products (ATMPs)
Advanced Therapy Medicinal Products (ATMPs) are recognised for their potential to revolutionise the way diseases are treated and to transform patient outcomes.
Appropriate prescribing
Prescription medicines are important therapeutic options which can be prescribed in order to prevent, treat or cure diseases and symptoms.
Innovative Medicines Fund (IMF)
The Innovative Medicines Fund is a proposed £340 million fund to give “quicker access to the most advanced, life-saving treatments”. It is an extension of the existing Cancer Drugs Fund (CDF), which has already improved access to promising new oncology treatments.
Medicine supply
Every day millions of patients rely on medicines supplied by the pharmaceutical industry.
The manufacture and selling of counterfeit medicines is an issue of increasing concern throughout the world. There are potentially fatal consequences for those who inadvertently take such products.
The Falsified Medicines Directive is legislation passed by the European Union Parliament, which aims to increase the security of the manufacturing and delivery of medicines across Europe and protect patients and prevent falsified medicines from entering the supply chain.