A top executive from one of the world's largest pharmaceutical companies has issued a damning indictment of the UK's medicine landscape, branding it a 'terrible place' to sell new treatments.
Paul Hudson, the chief executive of French drug giant Sanofi, delivered the stark warning, highlighting a perfect storm of post-Brexit regulations, a slow and restrictive approval process, and a pricing system that discourages investment. His comments underscore a growing crisis in patient access to innovative medicines.
A System Stacked Against Innovation
Hudson pinpointed several critical failures within the UK system. The core issue lies with the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) and its stringent cost-effectiveness thresholds. Sanofi's own drug, for a rare form of multiple sclerosis, was rejected, a decision Hudson called 'arbitrary'.
This sentiment is echoed across the industry. The UK's uptake of new medicines is among the slowest in Europe, leaving British patients waiting significantly longer for cutting-edge treatments available elsewhere.
The Brexit Effect and Global Competition
The situation has been exacerbated by Brexit. The UK's departure from the European Medicines Agency (EMA) has created a separate, smaller regulatory system. For pharmaceutical companies, this means additional costs and bureaucratic hurdles to launch products in Britain, making it a less attractive market compared to the larger EU bloc or the United States.
Hudson warned that the UK is now in direct competition with emerging economies, rather than leading alongside European neighbours. The country's life sciences strategy, a key government pledge, is being severely undermined by these market access barriers.
An Industry-Wide Warning
This is not an isolated complaint. The Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry (ABPI) has consistently raised alarms. Their data reveals a dramatic 25% fall in the use of new medicines in the UK since 2017. Industry leaders argue that the current pricing agreement, the Voluntary Scheme for Branded Medicines Pricing and Access (VPAS), with its high revenue clawback rate, acts as a punitive tax on innovation.
Until the government addresses these fundamental structural issues, the flow of new medicines into the UK is likely to slow to a trickle, putting patient health outcomes at risk and jeopardising the nation's status as a life sciences hub.
