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NHS to spend up to £3bn more on drugs after UK–US zero-tariff deal, experts estimate
(www.theguardian.com)
The British basically got mugged by the Americans.
A lot of american venture capitalist "bros" invest in pharma start-ups that produce barely effective, but extraordinarily expensive drugs.
Take for instance Leqembi. It's a new drug for Alzheimer. It's actually not very good and has a very high chance of creating internal bleeding. The cost of that drug? $32,000. But a lot of american investors put money on Leqembi and they have successfully convinced the FDA to allow it.
https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-025-02927-7
The US Approved an Alzheimer's Drug. Seven Patients Subsequently Died
According to the New York Times, the investors behind the company even lied to the people taking the drug about the extreme dangers:
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/10/23/health/alzheimers-drug-brain-bleeding.html
Why the fuck would you pay $32,000 for a drug that is barely effective and can destroy you out right? The FDA doesn't care. They allowed it.
In the name of "innovation". These shitty "innovative" drugs that aren't very effective are usually purchased by Medicare/Medicaid at a high price. That's how rich US investor loot US social programs created to help the poor.
Around the world, many health systems refuse to waste money on that crap.
The French Health Agency says Leqembi has too many side effects and is barely effective :
Now, Britain is forced to change the formula it used to purchase drugs.
According to the Financial Times, a no-nonsense newspaper:
Ministers will give in to industry demands to increase the value at which a medicine is considered cost-effective enough to be made available on the NHS for the first time in 25 years, according to two government officials.
The move is partly in response to US President Donald Trump’s threatened tariffs on the pharmaceutical sector, which is an area where the UK is a world leader.
But any change to medicines pricing will impose extra pressure on already strained public finances, with the NHS
The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (Nice), England’s drug approval body, uses the value of a quality-adjusted life year (QALY) — the cost of a treatment for every healthy year it delivers for a patient — when deciding whether to recommend a new drug. At present, its upper threshold is £30,000 per QALY, but pharmaceutical companies want this to increase.
Dr Sam Roberts, chief executive of Nice, has previously warned that spending more of the NHS budget on medicines would have a knock-on impact on the struggling service.
“Assuming that the budget for the NHS doesn’t increase, any increase in medicines prices would mean savings would have to be found elsewhere”, she told The Sunday Times earlier this year.
“So that would mean other things would need to be cut back such as on A&Es, fewer nurses, fewer hip replacements.”
Officials briefed the Trump administration on the plan after the president railed against European countries “freeloading” while the US pays for much higher drug prices, and threatened 100 per cent tariffs on medicines imported by the US.
https://archive.is/3M9jO#selection-2295.0-2299.116
With friends like this, the Brits don't need enemies