UK gov­ern­ment plans to hike rev­enue claw­back rates be­gin­ning in April

Ig­nor­ing warn­ing calls from phar­ma com­pa­nies and the As­so­ci­a­tion of the British Phar­ma­ceu­ti­cal In­dus­try (ABPI), the UK gov­ern­ment an­nounced it’s plan­ning to raise the rev­enue claw­back rate paid by phar­ma­ceu­ti­cal com­pa­nies on the Statu­to­ry Scheme for Brand­ed Med­i­cines from 24.4% to 27.5%. The high­er rates are pro­posed to kick in on April 1.

The Statu­to­ry Scheme, which is gov­erned un­der UK law, is one of two that com­pa­nies can use. The Vol­un­tary Scheme for Brand­ed Med­i­cines Pric­ing and Ac­cess is the sec­ond op­tion, and typ­i­cal­ly has low­er rates and is ne­go­ti­at­ed be­tween the gov­ern­ment and phar­mas. It’s a long­stand­ing agree­ment be­tween the gov­ern­ment and in­dus­try to keep med­i­cines af­ford­able for the Na­tion­al Health Ser­vice (NHS). A hike is al­so un­der con­sid­er­a­tion for the vol­un­tary scheme.

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