Pharma deal with US ‘still little more than press releases’

"historic" by Starmer in May, have yet to be signed off by the US despite a January deadline.

- 

The Department of Health and Social Care said negotiators were thrashing out the agreement on pharmaceuticals. Asked to provide the headline terms, it shared its press release and a link to the US announcement of an "agreement in principle".

Critics have noted the two releases described the deal in sharply different terms. The government's release said the UK was "the only country in the world to secure a 0% tariff on pharmaceuticals to the US" while Washington's focused on how the NHS would have to pay 25% more for new medicines.

David Henig, the director of UK trade policy at the European Centre for International Political Economy thinktank, said: "There is a serious risk that the UK government has made commitments to raise drug prices in return for nothing more than a verbal promise from President Trump... when we know he has form for not honouring his word."

Ordinarily negotiators would sign a provisional legal text that would then undergo detailed checks by both sides, but thus far none exists with the US on pharmaceuticals.

Ministers privately told the Guardian there were concerns that the agreements with the US were flimsy and unreliable.