Pharma sector contributes £1bn to NHS medicines bill

The pharmaceutical sector's contribution to the NHS's medicines bill has reached the £1 billion mark, new figures have revealed.

According to the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry (ABPI), the money was given to cover the cost of new medicines as part of the voluntary Pharmaceutical Payment Regulation Scheme (PPRS).

This is a means of making it easier for new treatments to become available to NHS patients and offer the same level of treatment as people in other EU nations.

Richard Torbett, executive director of commercial at ABPI, said: "This current PPRS scheme runs for five years and offers an important opportunity to ensure more NHS patients can benefit from NICE-approved medicines."

However, he said the pharmaceutical sector still needs to sit down with officials from the NHS and the Department of Health to remove any barriers that prevent the NHS from effectively rolling out the use of these new treatments.