🔗 Share this article US and UK Forge No-Tariff Pact on Pharmaceuticals. Stock image of medicine shipments. The UK and US have secured a important trade agreement that will maintain no tariffs on UK drug exports being sold in the US market. Key Provisions of the Pact Under the terms of the agreement, the UK has agreed to boost spending on drugs through the public health system. This commitment secures that duties on these vital goods will remain at zero for a timeframe of three years. This agreement comes after earlier threats to hike import taxes on patented pharmaceutical products, with figures mentioned reaching 100%. "This agreement with the United Kingdom reinforces the international landscape for new treatments and establishes long-overdue equity to American-British pharmaceutical trade," an announcement said. Economic Importance Drugs represent one of the Britain's biggest exports to the US, which is by far the primary market for major companies like GSK and AstraZeneca. Trade data indicate that in the year prior to last September, the UK sold medicines valued at £11.1bn to the US. This figure represented a significant portion of British export trade in that span. "This deal safeguards jobs, increases funding and sets the stage for the UK to establish itself as a global hub for medical research," a government official commented. Key UK Commitments The agreement involves several key changes from the United Kingdom: Revised Affordability Limit: The UK will lift the cost ceiling at which it judges new therapies to be too expensive by 25%. Boosted Medicine Funding: There is a target to raise overall public funding on treatments from 0.3% of the national economy to 0.6 percent over the following ten-year period. Refund Ceiling: The percentage manufacturers must pay back to the NHS to prevent overspending will be capped at 15%. Last year, repayments topped 20%. Broader Context The pact follows a protracted row between the pharmaceutical industry and the ministers over medicine costs and regulatory access. These tensions were exacerbated by arguments that US patients were paying significantly more for the same drugs than patients in the other developed nations. Over the last 18 months, several large drug company projects in the UK have been delayed or abandoned, while multi-billion-dollar investments have been pledged toward American operations. A senior figure publicly accepted that the NHS had to spend more on medicines, noting that its spending on drugs had declined as a proportion of its total funding over the last ten years.
Stock image of medicine shipments. The UK and US have secured a important trade agreement that will maintain no tariffs on UK drug exports being sold in the US market. Key Provisions of the Pact Under the terms of the agreement, the UK has agreed to boost spending on drugs through the public health system. This commitment secures that duties on these vital goods will remain at zero for a timeframe of three years. This agreement comes after earlier threats to hike import taxes on patented pharmaceutical products, with figures mentioned reaching 100%. "This agreement with the United Kingdom reinforces the international landscape for new treatments and establishes long-overdue equity to American-British pharmaceutical trade," an announcement said. Economic Importance Drugs represent one of the Britain's biggest exports to the US, which is by far the primary market for major companies like GSK and AstraZeneca. Trade data indicate that in the year prior to last September, the UK sold medicines valued at £11.1bn to the US. This figure represented a significant portion of British export trade in that span. "This deal safeguards jobs, increases funding and sets the stage for the UK to establish itself as a global hub for medical research," a government official commented. Key UK Commitments The agreement involves several key changes from the United Kingdom: Revised Affordability Limit: The UK will lift the cost ceiling at which it judges new therapies to be too expensive by 25%. Boosted Medicine Funding: There is a target to raise overall public funding on treatments from 0.3% of the national economy to 0.6 percent over the following ten-year period. Refund Ceiling: The percentage manufacturers must pay back to the NHS to prevent overspending will be capped at 15%. Last year, repayments topped 20%. Broader Context The pact follows a protracted row between the pharmaceutical industry and the ministers over medicine costs and regulatory access. These tensions were exacerbated by arguments that US patients were paying significantly more for the same drugs than patients in the other developed nations. Over the last 18 months, several large drug company projects in the UK have been delayed or abandoned, while multi-billion-dollar investments have been pledged toward American operations. A senior figure publicly accepted that the NHS had to spend more on medicines, noting that its spending on drugs had declined as a proportion of its total funding over the last ten years.