Drug price concessions have reached a three-year high in what Community Pharmacy England has called a “concerning escalation”.
The negotiator said last week that the final list of price concessions granted by the Department of Health and Social Care (DH) for February 2026 “includes 174 lines”.
The concessions - granted when pharmacies “cannot source a drug at or below” the reimbursement price set out in the Drug Tariff - are at their highest number since March 2023, with the most recent prices for February published on March 3, 2026.
“Further strain”
CPE director of research and insights Dr James Davies said it “has been a very worrying start to 2026”, with drug price concessions at a three-year high and the negotiator “having received more reports about problems obtaining medicines at appropriate prices than in any month since [it] started collecting this data in 2019”.
“This is a concerning escalation, and reflects the ongoing lack of resilience and challenges in the medicines supply chain,” he added.
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He also warned that the UK’s “low-price environment” means the supply chain is “struggling to operate effectively”, and “there is a danger that the continued lowering of prices will drive suppliers away from the UK market, putting further strain on supply to patients”.
“These issues are placing intense strain on community pharmacies, with our most recent data showing that one in four teams are spending more than two hours a day sourcing alternatives,” he said.
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“We cannot let this persistent disruption - which is exacerbating the intense financial challenges pharmacies are under - become business as usual.”
He assured pharmacists that CPE will “continue to watch events in the Middle East closely, as the impact on air and shipping routes will likely affect the availability of some medicines” - and urged the DH to “accelerate its plans to give pharmacists more flexibility to supply other available alternatives”.
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It comes after a recent report by the House of Lords found that the government is “not proactive” enough in preventing drug shortages.
The report, published last month, said the DH “focuses on reactive actions when shortages have already occurred”,and “does not effectively communicate shortages, or solutions, to frontline staff such as pharmacists and GPs”.
