ABPI says NHS plan requires a 'fourth shift' recognising medicines and vaccines

The Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry (ABPI) has published a paper designed to help the government fulfil its goal of an NHS fit for the future. The government wants to achieve three ‘shifts’ of hospital to community, analogue to digital and sickness to prevention. The ABPI paper calls for a fourth shift – to invest in innovative medicines – as a way of delivering the other three.

Richard Torbett, chief executive of the ABPI, said: “Investing appropriately in innovative medicines and vaccines, and incentivising the research that delivers them, will power the delivery of the 10-Year Plan. This investment is the ‘fourth shift’ that will benefit patients, the NHS and the life sciences sector, which can then drive health and growth throughout the UK.”

Recommendations

The paper is based on ABPI's input to the NHS 10-Year Health Plan consultation process and sets out how strategic investment in medicines, vaccines, NHS research capacity and health data infrastructure can help deliver vital policy goals. The paper makes a series of recommendations, including: 

• Increasing the proportion of NHS spend on medicines and vaccines to internationally comparable levels.
• Embedding research as ‘business as usual’ in the NHS and setting up an internationally competitive, dedicated health data research service in England.
• Improving system readiness for medicines and vaccines that prevent the onset or progression of disease.
• Positioning cross-sector partnerships as critical to the success of the Plan.
   

Richard Torbett added: “The NHS 10-Year Plan and the Life Sciences Sector Plan both represent opportunities to achieve the government’s mission for growth, but to do so, we must view medicines as an investment rather than a cost." 

Read the full report on the ABPI website here.