How US-UK drug deal will benefit patients | Letters

Many new medicines have reached NHS patients as a result of the government’s reformed pricing arrangements, writes Richard Torbett. Plus a letter from Nick Hoile

The suggestion that the US-UK pharmaceutical agreement will result in excess deaths is alarmist and relies on a heavily critiqued approach to modelling how much the NHS can spend to generate health (US-UK drug deal could result in 229,000 excess deaths in England, analysis suggests, 1 July). It is underpinned by incomplete data.

In just the last three months, many new medicines that would otherwise have been withheld or delayed have reached NHS patients as a result of the reformed pricing arrangements. These include treatments for several cancers, blood disorders and autoimmune conditions. This progress has resulted from an increase in the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence cost-effectiveness threshold, which had not moved in almost 25 years, despite the NHS falling behind comparable European countries on access to new treatments, particularly for cancer and rare diseases.