Pharma bosses and ministers to shape future drug pricing regime

Some of the global pharmaceutical industry's top executives are to form a new panel with the government aimed at devising a new pricing regime for key medicines.

Sky News understands that Whitehall officials and ministers will invite bosses from companies including AstraZeneca and GSK to join the new working group in the coming weeks. The move follows this week's announcement of a new drug-pricing deal between the UK and US which will see the NHS pay 25% more for branded medicines, as well as reducing the 'clawback tax' that drug companies pay to the NHS.

The agreement means that the UK will avoid tariffs on medicines exports to the US for at least three years, an outcome the government was determined to secure. Industry sources said the new working group was expected to examine a range of options for replacing the existing Voluntary Scheme for Branded Medicines Pricing and Access (VPAG) when it expires in about three years' time.

These options are likely to include an outcomes-based model which would entail variations in drug pricing, as well as exploring a link between pricing and the extent of pharmaceuticals companies' drug development activity which takes place in the UK. The VPAG scheme has drawn the ire of pharmaceuticals groups, which have been warning that they could delay or cancel billions of pounds of investment in Britain as a result of its continued adoption.

Liz Kendall, the science and technology secretary, described this week's announcement as a "vital deal [that] will ensure UK patients get the cutting-edge medicines they need sooner, and our world-leading UK firms keep developing the treatments that can change lives". "It will also enable and incentivise life sciences companies to continue to invest and innovate right here in the UK," she added.

The Department for Science, Innovation and Technology declined to comment on the new working group..