The UK is being accused by the pharmaceutical industry of sacrificing long-term medical innovation for the sake of short-term healthcare savings. Companies argue that the government’s focus on driving down drug prices has created a hostile market that is now actively repelling the investment needed to develop future cures.
The evidence for this claim is stark. The UK’s spending on medicines as a proportion of its total health budget (9%) is one of the lowest in the developed world. This cost-containment strategy, combined with price assessment rules unchanged since 1999, means the rewards for bringing a new drug to the UK market are exceptionally low.
This trade-off is now costing the UK dearly in other ways. In pursuit of savings, it is losing investment. MSD has canceled a £1bn R&D hub, Eli Lilly has paused a lab, and Sanofi has cut its research activities. A Sanofi executive described the outcome bluntly: the UK is a “terrible place to sell medicines.”
The industry is now calling for a new approach that balances cost control with the need to foster innovation. They are demanding a government roadmap that raises spending and modernizes pricing to ensure that the UK can both afford today’s medicines and attract the research that will create tomorrow’s.