Delivering the NHS 10-Year Plan will require a fourth ‘shift’ says ABPI

Investing in medicines and vaccines could revolutionise healthcare and help the government deliver the economic growth it wants to see, according to a new paper on the NHS 10-Year Plan published by the ABPI today.

‘Change NHS: How the innovative pharmaceutical industry can help deliver the NHS 10-Year Plan’ is designed to help the government achieve the three ‘shifts’ of hospital to community, analogue to digital and sickness to prevention. The paper calls for a fourth shift – to invest in innovative medicines, as a way of delivering the other three.

The UK now spends less on medicines than most of its peers, with medicines accounting for 9 per cent of the UK’s healthcare spend compared to countries like Germany and Italy (both 17 per cent) and France (15 per cent). [1]

Despite the proven benefits of medicines and vaccines in preventing disease and treating it early, the UK has had a 10 per cent decline in the availability of new medicines, compared to 2 per cent in the EU as a whole. [2]

To help the government fulfil its goal of an NHS fit for the future, the paper makes a series of recommendations, including increasing the proportion of NHS spend on medicines and vaccines to internationally comparable levels, embedding research as ‘business as usual’ in the NHS, and improving system readiness for medicines and vaccines that prevent the onset or progression of disease.

A critical factor to allow the government to invest in medicines will be the Autumn Review of the Voluntary Scheme for Branded Medicines, Pricing and Growth (VPAG), which currently caps the growth in medicines spend significantly below levels of NHS demand, placing huge pressure on industry and jeopardising patient access to medicines and economic growth.

Richard Torbett, Chief Executive of the ABPI said: “The NHS 10-Year Plan and the Life Sciences Sector Plan both represent opportunities to achieve the government’s mission for growth, but to do so, we must view medicines as an investment rather than a cost. The NHS 10-Year Plan particularly must maximise the contribution of innovation from all parts of the life sciences sector to succeed, including the vital role of medicines and vaccines.

“Investing appropriately in innovative medicines and vaccines, and incentivising the research that delivers them, will power the delivery of the 10-Year Plan. This investment is the ‘fourth shift’ that will benefit patients, the NHS and the life sciences sector, which can then drive health and growth throughout the UK.”

The government has identified the life sciences sector as one of the key sectors that can drive growth. Life sciences are already a critical pillar of the UK economy, and within this ecosystem, the pharmaceutical sector is the most valuable segment. In 2022, the pharmaceutical industry contributed:

• £9 billion in R&D, worth £17.6 billion in economic value

• 126,000 highly skilled jobs.

• £26.1 billion in exports

• Commercial clinical trials raised £1.2 billion of NHS revenue, supporting 13,000 jobs in the NHS

To continue this success, the ABPI’s full recommendations are:

Invest in medicines and vaccines to deliver health and growth

·       Leverage medicines and vaccines to support all three shifts and stimulate economic growth through improved productivity, a healthier population and increased research investment

The role of medicines in Shift 1: moving from hospital to community

·       Increase the proportion of NHS spend on medicines and vaccines to internationally comparable levels to help prevent the onset and progression of disease.

·       Tackle adoption challenges in primary care, upskill the community workforce and provide robust oversight to avoid increasing unwarranted local variation, particularly for patients accessing specialised services

The role of research and health data in Shift 2: moving from analogue to digital

·       Embed research as business as usual within the NHS.

·       Establish a data-enabled clinical trial recruitment service.

·       Create a virtuous circle of genomics R&D and testing.

·       Set up an internationally competitive, dedicated health data research service in England.

·       Introduce a shared care record to support care delivery, research and innovation.

·       Build NHS data infrastructure that provides detailed understanding of medicines-related patient outcomes and uptake of medicines across the country.

The role of medicines and vaccines in Shift 3: moving from treatment to prevention

·       Improve system readiness for medicines that can prevent the onset or progression of disease

·       Encourage the standard use of PharmaScan by all NHS organisations to help them prepare to benefit fully from new medicines

·       Improve NICE and JCVI evaluation methods and processes for medicines and vaccines.

·       Implement the Vaccination Plan

Enabling success: Partner with industry to accelerate progress and set the right metrics

·       Position cross-sector partnerships as critical to the success of the Plan

·       Increase the scale and ambition of cross-sector partnerships in primary care

·       Improve the sharing of evidence and insights from industry partnerships across NHS organisations

·       Set the right metrics to track progress for success, aligned to the NHS Constitutional standards