The UK pharma industry can expect resolutions on a range of issues, including VPAG [Voluntary Scheme for Branded Medicines Pricing and Access] concerns, innovative therapies, and the recent abolition of NHS England, says Secretary of State for Health and Social Care Wes Streeting.
Streeting delivered the closing talk to industry representatives at the 2025 Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry (ABPI) conference in London on 3 April. Addressing what he characterised as the “unrealised potential of life sciences in this country”, Streeting promised the government would seek quick and decisive action on a range of issues, notably the increased 2025 clawback rates under the voluntary scheme for branded medicines pricing, access, and growth (VPAG).
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An agreed scheme between the APBI and the government, VPAG stipulates the NHS may claw back a percentage of payments for new medicines from the industry to keep spending within a set budget. Pharma companies were disconcerted to learn of a significant increase in this rate for 2025, up from 15.3% to 22.9%.
According to Streeting, the incumbent Labour government had also not expected such high rates, noting the scheme had initially been negotiated by the Conservative predecessor government. However, he promised the government would “crack on in designing a solution” with Prime Minister Kier Starmer’s backing, to be set out in Streeting’s ten-year plan set to be published in June 2025.
Another key issue Streeting highlighted was to increase and equalise patient access to innovative medicines through the NHS. Recognising the exodus of many patients in the UK towards private healthcare in response to long waiting times and poor drug access, Streeting projected reform to drug approvals by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) under its chief executive Dr Samantha Roberts, who he described as “modernising, reforming, and hard-headed”.
Streeting also said the solution to patient access lies in ensuring those drugs NICE-approved are equitably deployed to patients across the country. Preceding Streeting’s address was a talk with Professor Sir Michael Marmot, author of the influential ‘Marmot Review’ on UK health inequality in 2010, who called for greater equity in patient access to healthcare across the country.
The Secretary of State noted the government’s recently announced plans to abolish NHS England.
“I think there’s been some concern about whether this is a kind of centralising power grab”, Streeting said.
However, he maintained the decision was focused on reducing waste, inefficiency, and bureaucratic layers in the nation’s health system. Along with greater use of the NHS’s amassed patient data, Streeting expressed the government’s aim to boost UK clinical trial activity and access to cutting-edge treatments.
