In Business news

Follow this topic

Bookmark

Record learning outcomes

Community Pharmacy England has condemned price cuts estimated at £35 million a quarter for Drug Tariff Category M products which come into effect from this month (July).

Based on its analysis of the Category M price list for July 2025 (published on the NHSBSA website), CPE estimates there will be an overall reduction in reimbursement on like-for-like Category M medicines of approximately £35m per quarter, resulting from the combination of:

• A margin adjustment of -£13m informed by the latest results from the margin survey of independent pharmacies
• An adjustment to reflect changes in buying prices of medicines. These are systematic and not subject to negotiation.

CPE’s director of pharmacy funding, Mike Dent, said: “When CPE was consulted by DHSC regarding the changes to the July Drug Tariff, we firmly emphasised the need for stabilisation in the market, and smoothing of funding delivery to pharmacies, and warned that continuing the trend of ever decreasing medicine prices is not a sustainable long-term approach.

“Medicine prices have already been driven down to unviable levels, and this is having significant detrimental impacts on the ability of pharmacy teams to procure many medicines for patients in a timely or reliable manner.

“Our view, which we have strongly emphasized to DHSC and NHS, is that Ministers should be seeking to invest in a robust and stable supply chain, and not simply aim to extract every penny out of an already fragile ecosystem.”

Results from the margin survey up to Q3 2024/25 indicated that there remained an over delivery of margin, and therefore a reduction in the Drug Tariff would be expected. However, in discussions with the DHSC, CPE argued for no reduction in the July Drug Tariff. The matter was ultimately referred to Ministers, who determined that a margin adjustment would be applied in July, said CPE.