Firms Fined £35m for Colluding in Drug Supply To NHS

Blossoming The article is “pay walled” try this link;

www.google.co.uk/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=&ved=2ahUKEwjw0KONv-P1AhWn8rsIHcSXCh4QFnoECAUQAQ&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.gov.uk%2Fgovernment%2Fnews%2Fcma-fines-firms-over-35m-for-illegal-arrangement-for-nhs-drug&usg=AOvVaw2wPczDlqXRK-ds9gxGfNbu

Not pay walled for me.

I don’t have a very high expectation of drug companies.
What I do expect is, that the buyers in the NHS to question these obscene price hikes.
But once again, it’s only tax payers money, isn’t it.
I would bet my bungalow that lots of people did very well out of this and I’m not pointing the finger at the drug company.
But we’ll never know, will we.

MerylStreep

I don’t have a very high expectation of drug companies.
What I do expect is, that the buyers in the NHS to question these obscene price hikes.
But once again, it’s only tax payers money, isn’t it.
I would bet my bungalow that lots of people did very well out of this and I’m not pointing the finger at the drug company.
But we’ll never know, will we.

When I worked on a dialysis unit in the 90s direct bribes were forbidden during that time. However the procurement officer used to have twice yearly visits to Germany and was feted and given numerous ‘gifts’. She was paying double for the equipment but complaints were filed in the waste paper basket.

Payments to GPs were also banned but they attended “educational study weeks’ at Gleneagles which counted towards their required additional training but the educational sessions were not compulsory.

Kamiso
Unfortunately it’s a fact of life that if your in a department that’s buying in goods or services, someone is on the make.
Amongst one of the many cases I know of is a printing company I worked for where we did a lot of work for HMRC.
That buyer was bought a new car.

Kamiso is right in the 1990's it was all a bit iffy.
For a long time now all big purchases now go to Regional level then out to tender . Often more than one hospital will add into the tender.
Senior professional staff as in our Dept, assess the products, all brands short list at least x2, fores and against. All have to match our criteria.
Our recommendation is then put out to tender for best price.
Last time we did this we got £250k off the bill. The large companies want to keep us on board.
I was told once, the UK is a loss leader due to the NHS, same product cost more in Europe.

This issue has come up before on Gransnet. There is a highly governed procurement process for drugs in the NHS, ultimately responsible to the Department of Health. Drugs are purchased within regions from a nationally approved list. If the NHS is being ‘ripped off’ it’s not local procurement officers who are at fault. Here’s a good explanation of how it works.
nhsprocurement.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/Guide-to-medicine-procurement-in-the-UK-Dec17.pdf

I know these 2 aren’t local procurement officers but how many of these 2 are around?

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10451509/NHS-officials-took-70-000-bribes-drugs-companies-recommend-medicines-GPs.html

Does anybody know the price in the UK of an asthma medication called Xolair? It's delivered by injection. I have two syringes twice a month and the cost per month is between 800 and 900 euros. Luckily I don't have to pay anything and nor does my top up insurance. I'm just interested because of the comment above about the UK being a loss leader.

Not many I would wager Meryl Streep, the NHS is very hot on detecting fraud, and services are audited to death to track it down.

Dinamho According to the online British National Formulary:
Xolair 75mg/0.5ml solution for injection pre-filled syringes (Novartis Pharmaceuticals UK Ltd)
Active ingredientsSizeNHS indicative price
Omalizumab 150 mg per 1 ml1£128.07