Pressure to cut prescribing costs is limiting access to beneficial drugs and "damaging patient health", the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry (ABPI) has warned.

While the UK had some of the lowest medicines prices in Europe, its uptake of medicines was "among the worst" due to cost-cutting measures, the ABPI argued. And it called on the government this week to recognise the "clear health and economic benefits" medicines could bring.

The ABPI's comments came as the Department of Health (DH) announced that prescribing costs had fallen 0.4 per cent in the past year, despite the volume of medicines increasing nearly 4 per cent. And the UK came out as having one of the lowest branded medicines prices in Europe in a report published by the Office of Health Economics for the ABPI last week.

"Despite the clear health and economic benefits our medicines bring, they are not always reaching UK patients" Stephen Whitehead, ABPI

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But while the ABPI was "pleased" medicines prices were "firmly under control", it warned that the government should not look to make savings at the expense of patients. The trade body told C+D that many medicines were being vetoed at a PCT level because of financial pressures. "Despite the clear health and economic benefits our medicines bring, they are not always reaching UK patients," said ABPI chief executive Stephen Whitehead. "This can't continue as it is damaging patient health and making the UK less attractive as a place to invest in research and development and launch new medicines."

Earlier this year, the DH announced it would crack down on trusts that delayed the implementation of Nice-approved medicines by publicly publishing an "innovation scorecard", enabling patients to see which trusts had adopted the latest drugs and treatments.

The move was welcomed by the ABPI, which said it could highlight the "great deal of variation across the country" in medicines availability.