ABPI voices VBP concerns

The ABPI has warned a complete switch from the current Pharmaceutical Price Regulation Scheme (PPRS) to a value-based pricing (VBP) approach may not halt a lack of UK innovation.

Britain’s pharmaceutical trade body is instead proposing the introduction of various aspects of VBP into the current system in favour of a complete overhaul.

Stephen Whitehead, Chief Executive, ABPI, said in an interview with The Telegraph that VBP “doesn't actually seem to do anything to encourage innovation”.

Governments in Spain, Greece, Italy and most recently Germany have introduced similar schemes in an attempt to save money with drugs priced according to their benefits to patients.

The existing PPRS ends in 2014 with the Coalition Government proposing a switch to VBP. The existing scheme regulates profits pharma companies can generate but does not decide individual prices.

Mr Whitehead welcomes the introduction of certain aspect of the new scheme, such as the societal benefits a new product may have, but believes an integrated approach would be more beneficial.

“We would like there to be a single holistic scheme that is low on bureaucracy, efficient, patient-focused and reflects an element of freedom of pricing which we have with the PPRS because it’s profit controlled,” he said.

A spokesperson for the DH defended the planned introduction of VPB saying: “We need a much closer link between the price the NHS pays and the value that a new medicine deliver.”

Eli Lilly CEO John Lechleiter recently campaigned to the German government that a switch to VBP there would ultimately discourage investment and innovation from the pharmaceutical industry.