U.K. Drug Budget to Reach 15 Billion Pounds by 2014, ABPI Says
The U.K. state-run health system’s drug budget is expected to grow by about 400 million pounds a year, reaching about 15 billion pounds ($24 billion) by 2014, the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry said today, citing industry forecasts.
The U.K.’s aging population is driving the growth, with almost two-thirds of prescriptions written for people over 65, according to the ABPI.
The National Health Service spends less than 10 percent of its total budget on medicines, down from 13 percent in 1999, the association said in an e-mailed statement. New medicines account for 10 percent of the NHS’s drug budget, the ABPI said. Use of new cancer medicines in the U.K. is one-third lower than the European average, the industry body said.
To contact the reporter on this story: Andrea Gerlin in London at agerlin@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Phil Serafino at pserafino@bloomberg.net
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