NHS drug charges row hits deadlock
Ministers have failed to agree a crucial deal on NHS drug charges that was meant to be at the centre of a plan to boost growth.
Talks on Friday between the Government and pharmaceutical industry bosses ended without an agreement on how much the NHS is able to claw back in rebates on drugs.
Ministers had been hoping to be able to address industry complaints of unfairness prior to the publication a strategy for the sector, expected next week.
One senior pharmaceutical executive said: 'If a [NHS clawback] deal is not secured, it's a missed opportunity for the life sciences sector plan and one which blocks the UK's ambition to be a life sciences superpower.'
Another said that the UK needed to show it wanted to make the scheme competitive again, adding: 'Without that, all the high statements of ambition or new strategies in the world are not going to make the UK a leading life sciences centre.'
The Department of Health launched a review of NHS rebates earlier this year under pressure from Donald Trump and the pharmaceutical industry.
Ministers said they would take into account the 'concerns of the US president' that countries are unfairly keeping prices low relative to the high drug costs in the American health system. Under the trade agreement signed between the two nations earlier this year, the Government agreed to 'endeavour to improve the overall environment for pharmaceutical companies operating in the UK'.
The failure to secure a deal ahead of the publication of the sector strategy follows months of wrangling.
Under the current rebate scheme, known as VPAG, pharmaceutical companies have to hand at least 23pc of their revenue from sales of branded medicines back to the NHS. The scheme cut the drug bill by £3bn last year.
However, pharmaceutical bosses have warned the scheme is preventing the launch of cutting-edge medicines in the UK. They have pressed for the UK to cut the rate of rebates into single digits, a level seen elsewhere in Europe.
The life sciences strategy is one of several sector plans announced as part of Labour's industrial strategy. Others were published this week.
A spokesman for the Government said: 'Economic growth is our number one priority and we're taking decisive action to unlock innovation and drive investment in the UK's world-class pharmaceutical sector. As part of this, we continue to work closely with industry on a rapid review of our voluntary scheme for medicines pricing.
'With our work and investment, we will make sure the next game changers in medicine are developed here in Britain, for the benefit of our health at home and abroad.'
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The Independent
31 minutes ago
- The Independent
What's next for birthright citizenship after the Supreme Court's ruling
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'All persons born or naturalized in the United States and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States,' the amendment states. Thirty years later, Wong Kim Ark, a man born in the U.S. to Chinese parents, was refused re-entry into the U.S. after traveling overseas. His suit led to the Supreme Court explicitly ruling that the amendment gives citizenship to anyone born in the U.S., no matter their parents' legal status. It has been seen since then as an intrinsic part of U.S. law, with only a handful of exceptions, such as for children born in the U.S. to foreign diplomats. Trump has long said he wants to do away with birthright citizenship Trump's executive order, signed in Januar,y seeks to deny citizenship to children who are born to people who are living in the U.S. illegally or temporarily. It's part of the hardline immigration agenda of the president, who has called birthright citizenship a 'magnet for illegal immigration.' 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The justices didn't say The high court's ruling was a major victory for the Trump administration in that it limited an individual judge's authority in granting nationwide injunctions. The administration hailed the ruling as a monumental check on the powers of individual district court judges, whom Trump supporters have argued want to usurp the president's authority with rulings blocking his priorities around immigration and other matters. But the Supreme Court did not address the merits of Trump's bid to enforce his birthright citizenship executive order. 'The Trump administration made a strategic decision, which I think quite clearly paid off, that they were going to challenge not the judges' decisions on the merits, but on the scope of relief,' said Jessica Levinson, a Loyola Law School professor. 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'Birthright citizenship has been settled constitutional law for more than a century," said Krish O'Mara Vignarajah, president and CEO of Global Refuge, a nonprofit that supports refugees and migrants. 'By denying lower courts the ability to enforce that right uniformly, the Court has invited chaos, inequality, and fear.' ____ Associated Press reporters Mark Sherman and Lindsay Whitehurst in Washington and Mike Catalini in Trenton, New Jersey, contributed.
Daily Mail
35 minutes ago
- Daily Mail
The pastry chef, lawyer and fast food boss shooting down Putin's drones with a WWI-era machine gun mounted on a truck from Leeds
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Yet while the unit cannot hit the drones, their presence has served to push the enemy to an altitude where they can be better seen and dealt with by more sophisticated air-defence systems. For the moment, the .50 calibre gun – or '.50 cal' – is the best weapon available to the men in the village hall. Every bit of equipment, apart from the guns and ammunition, is supplied by members of the unit and paid for out of their own pockets. Even the £2,500 thermal gun sights, without which they would be firing blind at night. 'We are defending our homes,' says Bohdan, the second-in-command, a lawyer by training who runs a rail logistics company. 'That is important psychologically. The cost is high, but the cause is important. We are our home city's first line of defence. We are directly protecting our families.' So far, one member of the unit has been killed, although not by drones. A comrade was blown up by a 'terrorist' bomb while manning a checkpoint. 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At 10pm the message comes through that three drones are approaching, 19 miles away and closing. We race to a different firing point on the edge of a field. Tonight, the wind is strong and rain is in the air. My hands are cold, yet almost the longest day of the year. Low cloud will make the night darker – and engaging drones harder, encouraging them again to fly at altitude. 'We will have to rely on our ears,' Yuri says. At 10.35pm the monitor shows a 'target', as the men call the drones, within six miles. On our right horizon we can see the red light of a low-flying Ukrainian helicopter gunship as it also hunts the incoming drones. A peculiar krek-krek noise strikes up somewhere close by in the darkness, like a very large frog ratcheting. Then another answers it and they carry on back and forth for the rest of the night. While the men hunt the skies for Gerans, a pair of corn crakes are broadcasting a mating call that only another corn crake would love. 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Yuri's unit are out in the fields, and open fire twice. But, once again, the drones fly too high to be hit. This one-sided contest will change soon. Any day now, the unit will receive FPV interceptor drones that can fly at 250mph and at an altitude of 13,000ft. Guided by a pilot, these kamikaze air-defence weapons are designed to ram the Russian Gerans and bring them down. We watched the gun crews practise with virtual-reality headsets at the village hall. They will keep the venerable .50 cals, but very soon that small child will be tall enough to reach that apple. Kyiv will sleep a little more safely as a result.
Rhyl Journal
37 minutes ago
- Rhyl Journal
NHS keeps public away as patients seen as ‘inconvenience', new boss says
In his first interview since his appointment as chief executive of NHSE, Sir Jim Mackey told the newspaper the health service has retained too many 'fossilised' ways of working, some of which have barely moved on since its creation in 1948. His statement comes as he prepares to implement a 10-year health plan to be published by the Government next week. Sir Jim, who was knighted in 2019 for services to healthcare, told The Telegraph: 'We've made it really hard, and we've probably all been on the end of it. 'You've got a relative in hospital, so you're ringing a number on a ward that no-one ever answers. 'The ward clerk only works nine to five or they're busy doing other stuff; the GP practice scramble every morning. 'It feels like we've built mechanisms to keep the public away because it's an inconvenience.' Sir Jim warned the disconnect between NHS services and the public could result in the loss of the public health service altogether. 'The big worry is, if we don't grab that, and we don't deal with it with pace, we'll lose the population,' he told the Telegraph. 'If we lose the population, we've lost the NHS. 'For me, it's straightforward. The two things are completely dependent on each other.' The Government's 10-year health plan will aim at improving NHS services through relocating patient care from hospitals to community-based health centres, a greater use of digital tools, and preventive care. Health Secretary Wes Streeting said on Wednesday the plan will also aim to 'address one of the starkest health inequalities', which he claims is the unequal access to information and choice when it comes to healthcare. Sir Jim told the Telegraph: 'We've got to somehow re-orientate it; think about how do we find people who need us, how do we stop thinking 'it's going to be a pain in the arse if you turn up because I'm quite busy' and instead think about how do we find out what you need and get it sorted.' Sir Jim added his concerns are driven by his own traumatic experience of NHS services, when his father died in a hospital locally known for its poor standards of care. He told the paper: 'My dad died in a hospital where the local folklore was terrible about the hospital, but the hospital was deaf to it and didn't know what was actually being said. 'I wasn't long into the NHS, it was a long time ago now, and I felt really powerless. 'I found out too late that the clinical community knew the guy who looked after him wasn't as good as I would have wanted him to be. 'I'll carry that for the rest of my life.' In an effort to take pressure off hospitals and cut down waiting lists, the Government previously announced that 85 new mental health emergency departments will be built across England. The 85 units will be funded by £120 million secured in the Spending Review, the Department of Health and Social Care said. Open 24 hours a day, seven days a week, they will be staffed by specialist nurses and doctors. Patients who need help will be able to walk in, or will be able to be referred by their GP. Under the new plans, mental health patients will also be able to self-refer for talking therapies using the NHS App The new measures could also pave the way for AI-driven virtual support, according to the Department of Health and Social Care. Mr Streeting also unveiled plans to divert more than £2 billion in NHS spending to working class communities.
