Drug price concessions in England have reached a record high for the fourth month running, as a Labour MP says the country is “addicted” to obtaining low-cost drugs for the NHS.
Community Pharmacy England (CPE) said on Wednesday that the record 254 price concessions negotiated for June mark the “fourth consecutive month of record highs, with some further requests still being negotiated”.
It added that its team “continues to receive thousands of reports from pharmacy owners each month about the medicines they cannot obtain at tariff prices”.
Read more: Third month of record drug price concessions
Meanwhile, pharmacist and MP Sadik Al-Hassan on Wednesday told the House of Commons that “we in this country are addicted to low-cost drugs for our health service”.
Speaking during a debate on the UK’s drug pricing deal with the US, announced in December, Al-Hassan said the country has “the lowest costs” and “always” opts for “the cheapest drugs, and that favours foreign manufacturers”.
“It destroys UK supply chains, as we have seen over the last 25 years, and it endangers our resilience as a country,” he added. “We are already seeing the side effects of that, with drugs being out of stock.”
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Al-Hassan referenced June’s record drug price concessions, saying the number is “the highest level that I remember seeing in my entire professional career”.
“Cheap drugs often mean that we overvalue the benefit of medicines in our system,” he said. “When we increase the price that we pay for drugs, it allows us to start considering the benefits of other types of treatment, such as social prescribing.”
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CPE also stressed that as it works with the government on the contract reform programme agreed under the 2026/27 funding deal, an “immediate priority must be a more effective medicines margin framework”.
“In the longer term, there must also be a fundamental review of the current reimbursement model and possible alternatives,” it said.
Serious challenges
CPE director of research and insights James Davies said the four consecutive months of record drug price concessions “point to a medicines pricing system under sustained pressure”.
“Pharmacy owners tell us month after month that they are having to spend significant time and personal money sourcing medicines above drug tariff prices, impacting their ability to provide patient care,” he added.
“The unrelenting price increases are creating serious cashflow challenges at a time when the sector is already under strain.”
Read more: ‘Concerning’: Drug price concessions highest in three years
It comes after CPE announced drug price concessions hitting a new record high in May, when 219 concessions were granted.
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”.
