Through a loophole that allows pharmaceutical company to sell the marketing rights to a treatment when its patent expires. The buyer is then able to rebrand the drug under a new name and sell it back to the NHS in a generic form at a vastly inflated price.
The sale of the epilepsy drug Epanutin, used by around 100,000 people across Britain, by its manufacturer Pfizer to another business, Flynn Pharma, resulted in the medication which originally cost about 67p per 50mg shooting up in price to almost £16 for the same amount, representing a 2,385 per cent increase.
Meanwhile, testosterone patches given to both men and women suffering from hormone imbalances jumped from £26 per 300g to a £395 after being sold on. And the price of a medication used to treat mental-health problems such as anxiety and schizophrenia rocketed from around £4 per five millilitres to £23 – a mark-up of 607 per cent.
It is understood that at least 15 drugs currently being supplied to the NHS have seen their price tags increase substantially after being sold from one pharmaceutical firm to another. They say that it could be costing the NHS and taxpayers up to an extra £100m per annum at a time when health budgets are being slashed.
A motion was unanimously passed at the BMA’s annual meeting last month criticising the pharmaceutical industry for maximising their profits at the expense of patients’ access to drugs.
Dr Peter Holden, a senior member of the BMA, said: “This is the drug companies flipping the drugs over to another firm for personal gain and milking the NHS for more money.”
Dr Bill Beeby, chairman of the BMA’s clinical and prescribing committee, said companies such as Pfizer – one of the planet’s largest pharmaceutical firms, worth around £44bn – and the much smaller Flynn Pharma were committing “highway robbery”. He added: “What the manufacturer has done is totally legal but you have to question what we define as legal.”
This is proof if you actually required any that the pharmaceutical corporations are there to make as big a profit as possible and not to make you well.
Also something to remember when those politicians attempt to blame the cost of the NHS on migrants and so-called “health tourism”
The sale of the epilepsy drug Epanutin, used by around 100,000 people across Britain, by its manufacturer Pfizer to another business, Flynn Pharma, resulted in the medication which originally cost about 67p per 50mg shooting up in price to almost £16 for the same amount, representing a 2,385 per cent increase.
Meanwhile, testosterone patches given to both men and women suffering from hormone imbalances jumped from £26 per 300g to a £395 after being sold on. And the price of a medication used to treat mental-health problems such as anxiety and schizophrenia rocketed from around £4 per five millilitres to £23 – a mark-up of 607 per cent.
It is understood that at least 15 drugs currently being supplied to the NHS have seen their price tags increase substantially after being sold from one pharmaceutical firm to another. They say that it could be costing the NHS and taxpayers up to an extra £100m per annum at a time when health budgets are being slashed.
A motion was unanimously passed at the BMA’s annual meeting last month criticising the pharmaceutical industry for maximising their profits at the expense of patients’ access to drugs.
Dr Peter Holden, a senior member of the BMA, said: “This is the drug companies flipping the drugs over to another firm for personal gain and milking the NHS for more money.”
Dr Bill Beeby, chairman of the BMA’s clinical and prescribing committee, said companies such as Pfizer – one of the planet’s largest pharmaceutical firms, worth around £44bn – and the much smaller Flynn Pharma were committing “highway robbery”. He added: “What the manufacturer has done is totally legal but you have to question what we define as legal.”
This is proof if you actually required any that the pharmaceutical corporations are there to make as big a profit as possible and not to make you well.
Also something to remember when those politicians attempt to blame the cost of the NHS on migrants and so-called “health tourism”
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