UK Report: Keep Calm and Carry On ... Differently, Sayenko Kharenko
Release Date: 2011-12-19 00:00:00
As the global economic roller coaster continues to unfold, governments the world over have desperately been scrambling to find the right policies that will effectively clamp on the brakes to end this unnerving joyride we have witnessed over the last few months, if not years. The frontline of this battle against economic gravity involves elaborate financial schemes to salvage countries and banks alike, but inevitably it has also meant that governments and companies have been tightening their belts to cut budgets wherever possible. In the United Kingdom, the slashing has heavily hit one of the country's dearest public institutions, the National Health Service (NHS), which has been asked to whittle £20 billion ($31.5 billion) from its budget by 2014. While most have grudgingly accepted this reality, some still remain optimistic in these times of austerity and vow to make the best out of it. Prime Minister David Cameron falls within the group of enthusiasts and has rallied his citizens by telling them that "we will be tested. I will be tested. I'm ready for that and, so I believe, are the British people. So yes, there is a steep climb ahead. But I tell you this: The view from the summit will be worth it."TO VIEW FULL REPORT PLEASE CLICK HERE
| Company: | Sayenko Kharenko |
| Country: | 乌克兰 |
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TO VIEW FULL REPORT PLEASE CLICK HERE
As the global economic roller coaster continues to unfold, governments the world over have desperately been scrambling to find the right policies that will effectively clamp on the brakes to end this unnerving joyride we have witnessed over the last few months, if not years. The frontline of this battle against economic gravity involves elaborate financial schemes to salvage countries and banks alike, but inevitably it has also meant that governments and companies have been tightening their belts to cut budgets wherever possible. In the United Kingdom, the slashing has heavily hit one of the country's dearest public institutions, the National Health Service (NHS), which has been asked to whittle £20 billion ($31.5 billion) from its budget by 2014. While most have grudgingly accepted this reality, some still remain optimistic in these times of austerity and vow to make the best out of it. Prime Minister David Cameron falls within the group of enthusiasts and has rallied his citizens by telling them that "we will be tested. I will be tested. I'm ready for that and, so I believe, are the British people. So yes, there is a steep climb ahead. But I tell you this: The view from the summit will be worth it."
DESPERATE TIMES CALL FOR DRASTIC MEASURES
But what exactly will be unveiled when the British arrive at the peak of their mount? When it comes to its healthcare system, the controversial 2011 Health and Social Care Bill provides concrete clues—but not quite certainties—as to where the country is headed in caring for its patients and how pharmaceutical companies will play a pivotal role in constructing a more efficient NHS. The overarching aim of this unprecedented reform is to improve patient outcomes by simplifying the organizational structure of health institutions, which presumably will bring down costs, while at the same time increasing the uptake of innovation through a new value-based pricing (VBP) scheme.
As it stands, the procurement of healthcare services in the NHS is managed by hospital and primary care trusts (PCTs) that are allocated individual budgets for a specific geographic area. Under the proposed system, this responsibility will be delegated to smaller GP consortia that will also be able to procure services from private and third-party providers in order to allow for greater competition. The proposal has been widely criticized as an attempt to privatize the entirely free NHS, to such an extent that the government had to halt its plans in order to hold a 'listening exercise,' after which the bill was amended to incorporate input received from all relevant stakeholders. The way forward is still under discussion.
One of the loudest voices heard during the exercise was that of innovative pharmaceutical companies who are already at odds with the NHS due to the country's lethargic uptake of new medicines and increasingly low prices (both among the lowest in Europe), exacerbated by the alleged 85% penetration rate of generic drugs (one of the highest in the region). The industry fears that the proposed VBP system, which will replace the Pharmaceutical Price Regulation Scheme (PPRS), will further limit the reimbursement of new treatments by the NHS. Under the PPRS, "companies were allowed to include their assets as part of the calculation that determined the amount of profit they could make in the country. This was extremely valuable for the pharmaceutical companies who were conducting research in the UK because those investments were then rewarded by the commercial environment," explains Sanofi UK general manager Steve Oldfield. Alternatively, the VBP scheme sets out to assess the value of a medicine holistically by taking into account its benefits to the patient and wider healthcare system correlated to the overall cost burden for the NHS. In theory this is meant to reward innovation and improve the uptake of new treatments, but skepticism prevails. Mark Jones, marketing company president for AstraZeneca UK, concludes that "While VBP aims to improve the valuation of new medical technologies it does nothing to address the issue of the fragmentation of the wider healthcare system. The pricing scheme will not change the fact that products will still have to go through all these layers of approval before they reach patients."
Sir Andrew Dillon, chief executive of the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE), explains that "what the government wants to do is to make sure that the price the NHS pays for new pharmaceuticals properly reflects their value, which is an ambition that NICE shares." As the organization responsible for evaluating whether a new drug should be reimbursed by the NHS or not, NICE can be somewhat divisive among the pharmaceutical industry. Sir Andrew counters that "while NICE is sometimes criticized for restricting access to treatments and pharmaceuticals in particular, everything NICE has done represents a net benefit to the NHS. Contrary to some beliefs, the vast majority (83%) of NICE's recommendations are positive." The reality is that no one is yet sure what VBP will look like nor whether it will be advantageous to the pharmaceutical industry in the long run.
Samantha Pearce, general manager of Celgene UK and Ireland, is optimistic in her interpretation of the ongoing discussions and how they will affect her company. "The reality is that the reimbursement environment in the UK will always be a challenge, but what encourages me about the VBP discussion is that the rhetoric is centered on innovation. As long as Celgene remains committed to providing truly innovative products that add value to the health of patients, then I think our aim will be parallel to that of the authorities. In our commitment to seeing this happen we are persistent and creative to engage all the relevant stakeholders that will ultimately make the decisions. It is essential for us to understand where they are coming from and vice-versa. We knew from the beginning that it would be a long journey, because the therapeutic areas that our products operate in are quite complex," she concludes. With growth at 40% for the first half of 2011, it is quite apparent that Celgene has in fact managed to communicate and find common ground with UK health authorities.
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