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Brexit: Tory minister admits US will be able to increase price of drugs bought by NHS

(37 Posts)
GracesGranMK3 Tue 03-Dec-19 14:16:35

Dominic Raab has admitted the US will be able to ramp up the cost of drugs bought by the NHS after Brexit, but insisted the prospect is “hugely unlikely”.

Asked if Washington would be free to “jack up prices”, the Foreign Secretary replied: “The Americans will take their decisions.”

He then claimed: “I think it’s hugely unlikely, why would they do that?” – prompting Sky News interviewer Adam Boulton to say: “To get more money that’s why.”

Officials from the department for international trade officials had “positive bilaterals” and met with PhRma, the US pharmaceutical lobbying group, to discuss priorities for a future trade deal.

Mr Raab again insisted the NHS would not be “on the table for negotiations” in the US-UK trade deal Boris Johnson is desperate to secure after leaving the EU.

www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/dominic-raab-brexit-nhs-privatisation-trump-us-drugs-price-increase-a9230661.html?fbclid=IwAR1KGkJaSID34jgvlLJSF-WtgPAR4UxQcXjY9HGkdeqTprPZY45kGoG2Yd8

GracesGranMK3 Tue 03-Dec-19 14:17:03

Personally, I don't see how we could stop them.

Dinahmo Tue 03-Dec-19 14:27:33

It's relatively simple. Don't vote for the Tories in the election.

If you are usually a Labour voter but don't like Corbyn, please remember that he is not the party. I don't believe that he is such a power seeker as BJ is. If you are usually a Tory voter but don't like what they've become but also don't like Corbyn, I beg you to please hold your noses.

There has been so much information on this forum about Johnson's lies and yet still people like him and say they will vote for him. And it's him that they're voting for and not the
Tories.

Today we have the NATO conference in London. Apparently May lobbied for it to be held in the UK as a means of showing how wonderful post Brexit Britain is. But we're not post Brexit and it's not wonderful and it won't be.

GrannyGravy13 Tue 03-Dec-19 14:28:58

You do know that countries other than USA have pharmaceutical industries. The UK should be able to shop around for the best deal possible.

Whitewavemark2 Tue 03-Dec-19 14:32:32

We had our own until Brexit now Glaxo is shipping out to the EU

jura2 Tue 03-Dec-19 14:43:03

Remember the old days before Glaxo- when it was great, British Beechams?

lemongrove Tue 03-Dec-19 14:50:56

Woe, woe and thrice woe....?
Brexit hasn't happened yet.The UK will shop around for the best prices should it happen.

jura2 Tue 03-Dec-19 15:16:48

unfortunately, prices will be imposed on the UK. Beggars are rarely choosers.

Urmstongran Tue 03-Dec-19 15:30:09

More gloom buckets on GN than you can shake a stick at!

GracesGranMK3 Tue 03-Dec-19 15:38:39

It's relatively simple. Don't vote for the Tories in the election.

grin Absolutely. I had no intention of doing so but, if we want to keep our NHS, we need everyone to realise that very few will benefit from us becoming a supplicant of the USA.

Urmstongran Tue 03-Dec-19 15:39:55

As I recall Corbyn declined a previous invite to Buck House, now he wants to "comfront" one of the guests at a royal reception.

Hey Corbyn, you have had ample time to ask President Trump about this recycled chestnut & yet now you'll embarrass the Queen by using this evenings event for your desperate publicity stunt!

Corbyn, you’re a loser & should have been warned "You don't cause problems in others homes"......show some respect eh!

Tooting29 Tue 03-Dec-19 15:48:31

Interesting discussion on Politics live today. LP Andy McDonald was torn apart by the presenter. The ex diplomat on the show gave a really rational view on how US conduct negotiations.

GracesGranMK3 Tue 03-Dec-19 15:57:11

You do know that countries other than USA have pharmaceutical industries. The UK should be able to shop around for the best deal possible.

You dear old sweet thing you. When we are dealing with the USA they are very, very big and have a great deal of clout. They will say to us that if we want to sell into the US without Trump's tariffs we will have to offer a quid pro quo. Trump is very fond of these. You may have heard.

In the recently revealed papers which, I imagine, like all other things you don't like you are trying to ignore, we learned that US officials repeated Trump’s concerns that countries like Britain aren’t "paying enough for our medicines", with a special concern about cutting edge biological medicines used in the treatment of many cancers. Introducing a US-style pricing regime would make such drugs unaffordable to the NHS.

You may have heard if you weren't burying your head in the sand, that our trade negotiators received special lobbying from pharmaceutical corporations as part of these trade talks.

On our own, we will simply be too small to deny Trump what he wants. The idea that we can simply walk away from trying to deal with him is for the birds and, as we have already treated our closed friends and allies like s**t they wont want to do good deals with us either. What will happen GG13 when we can't say no to the US, or China, or India.

Now I know you and some of your bitter little friends will tell us you know more than the experts, but I simply don't believe you. Usually, the next resort is a personal attack or childish rudeness. However, all our futures depend on everyone opening their minds to the real possibility that, although a very few people will get very rich the rest of us will suffer for decades to come.

GracesGranMK3 Tue 03-Dec-19 16:00:02

The ex diplomat on the show gave a really rational view on how US conduct negotiations.

That would be the ex REPUBLICAN diplomat Tooting. Did you expect he would give you a balanced and uncontroversial "view"?

Urmstongran Tue 03-Dec-19 16:04:09

‘You dear old sweet thing you.’

‘You may have heard if you weren’t burying your head in the sand.’

‘You and some of your bitter little friends ...’

Oh goodness GGmk3 you’ve started so soon with the chikdish rudeness ‼️

Gave me a laugh anyway!

GrannyGravy13 Tue 03-Dec-19 16:12:12

GGMK3 For the record, I am not your "dear old sweet thing", resorting to patronising comments as per usual.

The nastiness to other posters is coming from the left, I should have put money on it!!

As for those documents Jeremy Corbyn was on This Morning early today where he was asked if the documents had been downloaded from "Reddit" and was he sure that they were not fake..........and guess what he couldn't answer!!!

GrannyGravy13 Tue 03-Dec-19 16:14:00

The UK is still the fifth wealthiest country in the world, it is not a banana republic, mind you reading some of the posts on here some believe it to be one.

SirChenjin Tue 03-Dec-19 16:20:51

Rather than getting all affronted by the excellent post by GracesGranMK3 perhaps you’d like to counter it with actual, hard evidence to the contrary (that you haven’t lifted from the right wing press)?

Urmstongran Tue 03-Dec-19 16:32:37

Oh you must mean instead of the left-wing press then Scj (the Independent) that GGmk3 referred us all to!

SirChenjin Tue 03-Dec-19 16:39:19

So - can you counter GGMk3’s post paragraph for paragraph Urm? I’m sure, if what she claims is untrue true, it must be very easy for you to do.

varian Tue 03-Dec-19 16:41:57

The Independent is not left wing. It is independent and politically neutral.

It may seem left wing to readers of The Daily Mail, Sun, Telegraph and Express but analysis of newspapers in the run up to the fraudulent referendum of 2016 found that The Independent and The "i" were completely balanced in their coverage of leave and remain arguments.

Urmstongran Tue 03-Dec-19 16:53:44

Oh right varian not The Independent newspaper that put funds in, organised and arranged coach transport then for the Remain demonstrations in London. Not that one?

Urmstongran Tue 03-Dec-19 16:55:58

So - can you counter GGMk3’s post paragraph for paragraph Urm? I’m sure, if what she claims is untrue true, it must be very easy for you to do

Nope. Won’t even try.
Life’s way too short to dig that deep!

My, the hours must just fly by at GGmk3’s house!

SirChenjin Tue 03-Dec-19 17:07:15

No, I didn’t think you could.

Dinahmo Tue 03-Dec-19 17:45:15

GG13 The other countries are where Glaxo (origins New Zealand) Smith Kline operate. Glaxo merged with Burroughs Welcome in 1995, Beechams merged with Smith Kline in 1989.

Glaxo and SK merged in 2000. They are the 3rd largest pharmaceutical group in the world and employ hundreds of thousands of people worldwide. They have a large operation in India which is where many people think we will be able to buy our drugs from.

So, I don't think it will be that easy to shop around for the best prices.