British MPs have called on the National Audit Office (NAO) to investigate the cost to taxpayers of a pharmaceutical deal with the US. On Wednesday, six parliamentary committee chairs sent a letter to the NAO, noting significant public interest in understanding the deal’s impact on government spending. This follows the government’s refusal to disclose details regarding the agreement’s cost.
Terms of the pharmaceutical deal
The deal, reached last December, involves increased UK spending on new medicines in exchange for zero US tariffs on pharmaceutical products for three years. The UK government has committed to doubling spending on new medicines—from approximately 0.3% to 0.6% of GDP by 2036.
Furthermore, the government has introduced secondary legislation allowing the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) to raise its cost-effectiveness threshold by 25%, which the institute uses to determine whether a drug provides sufficient value for money.
MPs stated that without a comprehensive impact assessment, Parliament and the public cannot fully understand the long-term consequences for NHS budgets and other public spending. The government continues to refuse to release the final cost of the deal to the National Health Service, estimating it at approximately £1 billion over the current budget planning period.
MPs also urged the NAO to assess whether the deal provides proper value for taxpayer money.
Dispute over the deal’s assessment
Sally Gainsbury, a senior policy analyst at the independent think tank Nuffield Trust, was previously denied access to the government’s impact assessment of the deal. According to the Information Commissioner’s Office, the UK Department of Health and Social Care stated that disclosing the document could harm current policy development, international relations and commercial interests.
On August 17, Sally Gainsbury filed an appeal with the Information Tribunal regarding the government’s decision to withhold the assessment. The case is expected to be heard between December and February.
According to Sally Gainsbury, the trade deal will have a huge negative impact on the NHS’s ability to improve public health, as resources will be diverted from more cost-effective forms of care to significantly more expensive and often less predictable treatments.
She also stated that the government calls the deal necessary to support economic growth but is not prepared to release details of its impact assessment.
Signatories of the letter to the National Audit Office include parliamentary committee chairs Layla Moran, Chi Onwurah, Liam Byrne, Tonia Antoniazzi, Patricia Ferguson and Ruth Jones.
Source: Politico
