Drug price concessions have hit a new record high this month and for the fifth time this year, Community Pharmacy England (CPE) has confirmed.
The negotiator announced last week that 268 drug price concessions have been granted by the Department of Health and Social Care (DH) for September.
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The first record high in over three years was recorded in March, when 210 concessions were granted, beating the previous December 2022 record of 204.
There were four consecutive months of record price concessions between March and June this year, before July and September each saw the number dip slightly.
“Ever-growing strain”
CPE research and insights director Dr James Davies told C+D that September’s new record shows the “ever-growing strain on medicines supply and pricing”.
He added that pharmacy owners are “too often” left buying medicines above the drug tariff prices “without certainty that their costs will be covered”.
“Investment is needed by government to improve medicines supply resilience and deliver a reimbursement system that is faster, fairer and more responsive to market conditions,” he said.
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CPE warned last month that pharmacy owners were facing “renewed pressure” due to medicines supply disruption and “rising purchase prices”.
It said the drugs included in the concessions are “high-volume, commonly prescribed treatments” for hypertension, high cholesterol, diabetes and antibiotics for infections.
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And it noted that the DH “takes time” to announce decisions on many products, adding “further strain to already stretched businesses” as owners do not know whether the concession will be granted.
The negotiator said at the time that it continues to raise low drug tariff prices, dispensing at a loss and the need for margin reforms “at ministerial level”.
“Creaking at the seams”
National Pharmacy Association (NPA) chief executive Henry Gregg said the new record is “deeply alarming” and is “yet more evidence of a system that is creaking at the seams and in desperate need of reform by the government”.
“We want to work with the government to address this situation,” he said.
“It is a scandal that all too often pharmacies are subsidising the cost of the nation’s medicines.”
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Independent Pharmacies Association chief executive Dr Leyla Hannbeck said the figures “translate into very real financial pressures” and are a sign that the “current medicines reimbursement system is not working as it should”.
“With independent pharmacies already under significant financial pressure, ending dispensing at a loss must be an urgent priority for government,” she added.
And the Royal College of Pharmacy’s English pharmacy advisory council chair Professor Mahendra Patel OBE said discussions around reforms to the community pharmacy contract “clearly must include the approach to medicines reimbursement”.
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It comes after the NPA told C+D in April that the government “must step in to help pharmacies” with “spiralling” drug prices.
And it follows Company Chemists’ Association chief executive Malcolm Harrison warning that the “very low prices the government sets for generic medicines” mean that “many pharmacies are now supplying NHS prescriptions at a loss”.
