Plans to increase medicine spending by £1bn shelved, Government says

PROPOSALS that would have seen spending on medicines in the UK increase by around £1 billion over the next three years have been shelved, according to the Government.

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Officials launched a review of the voluntary scheme for branded medicines pricing, access and growth (Vpag) - an agreement to control the cost of sales of branded medicines to the NHS - earlier this year.

An "unprecedented offer" put forward by the Government in June would have increased net spending on medicines by around £1 billion by 2028, the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) said, although members of the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry (ABPI) are "unwilling" to take the offer to a board vote.

The ABPI said they had not been able to reach a conclusion on how an agreement would deliver on the Government's ambition for the UK's life sciences sector and industry's aim to ensure innovative treatments reach NHS patients.