The pharmaceutical industry and the UK government are beginning a series of discussions on the shape of the future voluntary drug pricing and access scheme (VPAS), ahead of the formal negotiations that are scheduled to start in April.

In 2022, a total of five companies chose to exit the UK’s voluntary scheme that manages branded medicines spending. The departure of two big firms – AbbVie and Lilly – is seen as a deliberate tactic to send a clear signal to government that the scheme is not working for industry and is jeopardizing investment and access to medicines in the UK.

The pharmaceutical industry is calling on the government to take steps to restore the UK as a location for life sciences investment and recognize the role of competition in the branded generics market, but it will need strong evidence to make the most convincing case.

Negotiations on the successor to the UK’s 2019 voluntary drug pricing scheme are due to start in April 2023. The industry body, the ABPI, is calling for a clean sheet approach, but others suggest that could make it almost impossible to reach agreement in less than a year and that reform may be a more realistic proposition.

Many pharma firms are considering cutting their investment in clinical trials or reducing their supply to the UK market next year, a survey by industry group EMIG found.

Faced with the rise in its workload, the UK’s health technology assessment body NICE is exploring ways of tailoring its approach to appraisals according to the type of product under consideration.