GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) has said it aims to secure drug volume growth in China and other emerging markets by cutting its prices.

The UK’s largest pharmaceutical company has seen this strategy increase its sales in China by 20% in the last year.

The strategy is part of the company’s ongoing global drive to increase patient access to its products.

According to the GSK’s annual report, introducing price cuts in 2009 has caused unit sales of allergy drug Avamys to increase fivefold in emerging markets, while revenue from Avodart (a drug for enlarged prostate glands) has risen by 76%.

“Price reductions are in many ways very important in driving the access and take-up of healthcare coverage,” said GSK’s Chief Financial Officer, Simon Dingemans (pictured). “We see very good volume response to that, which shows the strategy is working.”

He noted that last year, GSK saw its sales rise by 20% in China (to £1bn) and by 5.6% across all emerging markets (to £1.56bn).

GSK is using the same price-cutting approach in another 10 Asian countries and 40 in Africa.

China is the world’s third largest pharmaceutical market, with annual spending on healthcare set to rise to $1 trillion by 2020.

Sanofi has responded to protests against the withdrawal of its drug Campath by restoring access for a limited number of patients with multiple sclerosis (MS).

Campath (alemtuzumab) is approved for treatment of leukaemia but is prescribed off-label for treatment of MS.

To offset the effects of its withdrawal from the market, prior to a rebranding, Sanofi has agreed to make 201 vials available for MS patients in the UK.

In September 2012, Sanofi’s subsidiary Genzyme withdrew Campath to allow a new version, Lemtrada, to be licensed for treatment of MS in the UK.

This meant both that the drug’s price would increase by a factor of 15–20 and that a gap would be created in its availability.

There was widespread protest from doctors, including a letter to the Health Secretary from three specialists warning that patients could miss the window of ‘therapeutic opportunity’, with serious medical consequences.

One of the letter’s authors, Professor John Zajicek, commented that Sanofi’s approach was “morally corrupt”.

Genzyme has agreed to supply a further 201 vials of the drug for the patients of six specialists who were using it as a treatment for MS – however, it will not be available for new patients.

Professor Zajicek said the company’s response was “disappointing”, with Genzyme setting conditions that “don’t make sense”.

The decision to rebrand Campath was based on clinical trials that showed it to be more effective against MS than the current treatment, interferon beta-1a.

Researchers at the University of Cambridge said the drug had a “transformative” effect, and could be given to two-thirds of patients newly diagnosed with MS.

Genzyme stated that gaining regulatory approval for alemtuzumab as a treatment for MS was the best way to ensure patient access.

However, critics have predicted that its price as a licensed drug in this indication will be 15–20 times as high as its current price (which follows patent expiry).

The Welsh Government has decided not to adopt a Cancer Drugs Fund (CDF), but rather to rely on existing mechanisms to ensure patient access to cancer therapies.

Health Minister Lesley Griffiths said the fund, currently used in England to ensure patient access to non-approved medicines, was at odds with an “evidence-based” approach.

He also claimed that early diagnosis, surgery and radiotherapy were all higher priorities for cancer patients.

Speaking to the All Wales Medicines Strategy Group, Griffiths said: “A Cancer Drugs Fund would not be in the best interests of people in Wales. We already have robust mechanisms in place to ensure access to non-approved medicines is consistent for patients in exceptional circumstances.”

More contentiously, Griffiths claimed: “There is no evidence a Cancer Drugs Fund improves the quality of life or survival rates.” It would undermine the Group’s attempts “to deliver evidence-based advice on new treatments,” he argued.

“The available evidence does show survival is more closely linked to early diagnosis while surgery and radiotherapy are more likely to influence survival, and it is on these issues we should focus.”

The CDF allocates £200m per year to the NHS for 2012 and 2013 to ensure individual patient access to certain non-approved drugs prior to the introduction of value-based pricing at the end of 2013.

Patients will receive treatment more quickly and safely under new plans published in the NHS information strategy – The power of information.

Healthcare professionals and patients will be able to access medical records online in an attempt to improve services and see which treatments are effective in each individual.

Health Secretary Andrew Lansley discusses how the strategy will empower patients and doctors.

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Patients will receive treatment more quickly and safely under new plans published in the NHS information strategy – The power of information.

Healthcare professionals and patients will be able to access medical records online in an attempt to improve services and see which treatments are effective in each individual.

Health Secretary Andrew Lansley said the new measures had been introduced to “make patient-power a reality and take the hassle out of using the health service.”

The strategy aims to improve access to information for the NHS, public health and social care within a ten-year framework.

By 2015 patients will be able to book GP appointments online, order repeat prescriptions over the internet and check test results electronically.

Patients’ medical records will be made available electronically online allowing easy access by individuals and anybody they wish to refer them to.

Also, individuals will be able to contact GP surgeries by email when requesting items such as sick notes.

The Royal College of GPs has agreed to lead work on supporting individuals to access services and records electronically. From next year, it will work alongside the NHS Commissioning Board to promote the new services.

Sir David Nicholson, Chief Executive of the NHS Commissioning Board, commented: “Information is critical to the transformation of the NHS. To get the best outcomes for our patients we must enable them to make informed decisions about their care and wellbeing – be that choice of service or how to best manage their own health.”

The NHS will receive an immediate cash injection of up to £100m to support local community-based services during the winter months.

The additional ‘frontline commissioning funding’, which has been allocated to the emerging Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCGs), must be committed for specific purposes by mid-February or returned to the DH.

The money, amounting to £2 per patient, is to be spent on developing local care services and reducing unnecessary hospital admissions; as such, its remit may include prescribing.

While it may soften the immediate frontline impact of cuts in NHS spending, the new cash injection is only 2% of the £5bn ‘efficiency savings’ required of the NHS in 2012.

Consistent with the DH policy of shifting the focus of healthcare from acute to community-based services, the funding could (for example) be spent on improving patient access to GP services, improving services provided to nursing homes, or developing home-based services.

Health Secretary Andrew Lansley said: “I am pleased to be able to give the NHS up to £100 million in extra funding to spend directly on local frontline care for their patients during the winter months.”

He emphasised that giving a cash boost to the new CCGs would strengthen the role of local clinicians and thereby ensure that patients “receive the right care according to their individual needs”.

The money must be signed off by the PCT clusters for specific service improvement purposes: it cannot be used to help cover the cost of existing services.

This is the first time that the DH has specifically identified funding to be allocated to the new CCGs, though PCTs already delegate commissioning funds to support the CCGs in providing services.

CCGs will need to inform their PCT clusters how the funding will be utilised by mid-February 2012; each PCT cluster will similarly need to inform the relevant SHA cluster by the end of February 2012, and money not allocated will be returned to the DH.

This funding window provides an added incentive for pharmaceutical companies to demonstrate the value of their solutions for community-based healthcare.