Mooching over the Sunday papers, Judy Viitanen has just read a good piece of investigative journalism in today’s Mail on Sunday on the dramatic increase in generic drug prices in UK and pharma companies excessive profits.

Check out this link to read the 3-page article in full:   http://bit.ly/dk2CK6

As an example, the piece cites two years ago, when a packet of hydrocortisone tablets cost the NHS £5 – and now the cost is claimed to be £44.

You’d think with the buying power of the NHS we’d get the cheapest possible prices – but as the article reveals, we don’t. This situation is clearly unacceptable – and needs to be reviewed.

So, as a specialist healthcare lobbying and communications consultancy, PRimage is pleased to hear that the Department of Health is evidently launching a review to examine why the cost of some generic drugs has risen so dramatically. In our view, Labour poured millions of pounds of tax payer’s money into the NHS and various PCTs and Procurement Departments, but clearly failed miserably to check just how the money was being spent!

The NHS as a huge customer should be able to negotiate huge discounts on these cheap medicines! Maybe NHS should manufacture their own generic medicines - and use the money from savings from removal of the PCTs to fund it? What’s your view?

There is certainly no profit being made from pharmacies in this. All the pharmacy gets paid by the Government is the price that they’ve paid the wholesaler, - (or at least, the Governments idea of what should have been paid. - which is frequently less!) - plus a dispensing fee of around 90p. That’s their profit!