Drugs industry says medicine rebate system ‘holds back growth'
The pharmaceutical industry has hit out at a government consultation on a controversial NHS medicine rebate system as a 'failed approach of the past and an example of the inertia in thinking that is holding back UK growth'.
In a highly critical response to a department of health consultation to raise a statutory payment rate for newer branded medicines, the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry (ABPI) warned that an internationally uncompetitive system was undermining the government's attempts to make the life sciences sector a 'key pillar' of its industrial strategy.
Ministers have identified life sciences as one of eight important future growth sectors as part of its industrial strategy, a key plank of Labour's manifesto to overcome lacklustre economic growth.
Rachel Reeves, the chancellor,
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