Big Pharma and Donald Trump are holding the NHS to ransom. Under the threat of tariffs and withdrawal of investment, they are trying to force the NHS to pay more for our medicines. This risks our ability to control prices and poses severe threats to the NHS as a whole.
In effect the NHS has the power to cap drug prices. In order to sell to us, companies have to prove their drugs are good value for money. If the NHS says they aren’t, companies need to reduce prices so they can sell them here. This keeps prices under control and means the NHS doesn’t go broke. What’s more, the companies are still highly profitable.
But Big Pharma hates this system, and Trump has given them the ammunition to fight it. It appears that the government might have surrendered, lifting the price cap on certain medicines by 25%. It has been reported that, with MPs still in the dark about the plan, the government has asked Trump whether he will accept their compromise.
For the sake of our NHS, the government must not go through with this. We gain nothing from diverting NHS funds into the pockets of some of the world’s richest companies.
Instead of taking orders from corporate boardrooms, the government should start building a medicine industry which puts our health needs first, and then work with countries in the global south to help boost their research and production capacity, breaking Big Pharma dominance.