Author: Lynne Taylor

A Conservative government would “reform the way drug companies are paid for NHS medicines, so that any cost-effective treatment can be made available through the NHS, with drug providers paid according to the value of their new treatments,” according to chapter one of the party’s draft manifesto, which deals with the Tories’ reform plan for the Service, published this week.

The Department of Health (DH) has begun a consultation on plans to allow generic substitution in England, with the aim of bringing the substitution rate from 83% to 88%.

Growth in spending on prescription drugs in the US slowed to 3.2% in 2008, continuing a decelerating trend that began in 2000, according to new government figures.

The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) is to hold an emergency debate and inquiry this month into the “influence” exerted by drugmakers on the World Health Organisation’s (WHO) global H1N1 flu campaign.

The UK is the leading developer of biotechnology-derived therapies in Europe and is second only to the US globally in terms of numbers of biotherapies in clinical trials, says a new government report.