Latest / Embedded / The Real Mythbuster Why Saying No to Higher Drug Prices Won t Fix The NHSPharma Relationship Sco

Transcript

The Real Mythbuster Why Saying No to Higher Drug Prices Won t Fix The NHSPharma Relationship Sco · Embedded

• 0:06
  I hear it all the time. If the NHS just
• 0:09
  says no to higher drug prices,
• 0:11
  everything will be fine. Costs come down
• 0:13
  and everyone's happy, right? Well, not
• 0:16
  quite. That idea sounds good
• 0:18
  politically, but in reality, it's a
• 0:19
  myth. Drug discovery isn't like writing
• 0:22
  a song or making a film. It typically
• 0:24
  takes more than 10 years, can cost 1 to2
• 0:27
  billion, and sometimes more. And you've
• 0:29
  got to keep in mind, nine out of 10
• 0:30
  compounds fail before they ever reach a
• 0:33
  patient. The patent system isn't about
• 0:35
  making companies rich. It's what makes
• 0:37
  that kind of risk worth taking. Without
• 0:39
  it, there's no new antibiotic, no new
• 0:41
  dementia therapy, no new gene editing
• 0:44
  technology. But here's where the real
• 0:46
  problem lies. The NHS doesn't actually
• 0:48
  pay for innovation. It pays for value.
• 0:51
  And the way we define value is far too
• 0:53
  narrow. If value only means cost per
• 0:56
  qual, we underreward the treatments that
• 0:58
  actually save the system money, the ones
• 1:00
  that prevent hospital admissions, reduce
• 1:01
  staff workload, or keep people well
• 1:03
  enough to stay in work. So the answer
• 1:05
  isn't to say no more loudly. It's to
• 1:07
  define yes much more intelligently. That
• 1:10
  means outcome based pricing, long-term
• 1:12
  partnerships, and incentives that align
• 1:14
  industry effort with NHS priorities.
• 1:17
  When we get that right, higher prices
• 1:19
  aren't a burden, they're an investment
• 1:21
  in long-term sustainability. The biggest
• 1:23
  myth in all of this isn't that pharma
• 1:25
  overcharges. It's that the NHS can get
• 1:28
  innovation on the cheap. If we want
• 1:30
  better outcomes, we have to build a
• 1:31
  smarter yes. I've unpacked this argument
• 1:34
  in detail in my latest blog, including
• 1:37
  what practical reform could actually
• 1:38
  look like. You can read it in the link
• 1:40
  below.