From patients and their loved ones to those working within the pharmaceutical industry in the UK, we share a common goal: Lives Lived Well.
Our mission is to highlight the value of medicines and vaccines in improving the quality of life for millions of people.
Our industry extends beyond clinical and financial outcomes, it is essential in creating a healthier, more hopeful future for everyone.
We aim to show how innovation, dedication, and collaboration drive this common goal.
The UK now spends less on medicines than most of its peers. Medicines account for 9% of the UK’s healthcare spend compared to countries like Germany and Italy (both 17%) and France (15%).
Source: King's Fund 'How does the NHS compare to the health care systems of other countries?' report (2023)
Over the last decade, the value of the UK branded medicines market has declined by 11% in real terms. In the same period, the NHS budget grew by 33% in real terms.
Source: House of Commons Library 'NHS Funding and Expenditure' report (2024)
For over 70 years the industry has worked with the UK government and NHS to ensure the best possible value from investment in medicines.
A key example is the Voluntary Scheme for Branded Medicines Pricing and Access (VPAG) which ensures the NHS doesn’t overspend its allocated branded medicine budget—even if it ends up using more medicines than forecast.
Unfortunately, despite the positive intent from all sides, the current scheme is in crisis with the UK now significantly out of line with comparable countries. If not addressed, this will have a significant impact on our industry’s ability to help deliver an NHS fit for the future.
Medicines and vaccines have a critical role to play in delivering improved population health, but England has slipped from being the first for availability of new medicines (compared to other countries in Europe) to ninth in less than 10 years.
The number of participants recruited into UK industry interventional clinical trials fell by 13.8 per cent between 2022/23 and 2023/24. This continues a year-on-year decrease in the number of participants into UK industry interventional clinical trials - with the exception of the pandemic period - and is the lowest number of individuals participating in industry interventional trials over the past seven-year period.
Source: ABPI 'The road to recovery for UK industry clinical trials' report (2024)
To achieve the UK’s science and technology ambitions and improve the health and wealth of the nation, the government and the industry are working together to restore the UK’s global position in industry clinical trials and maximise their benefits to patients, the NHS, and the UK economy.
The UK’s global rankings for late-phase industry trials have not improved, and delays to regulatory approvals for clinical trials seriously eroded the global pharmaceutical industry’s confidence in the UK as a destination for research. However, thanks to efforts from government, system partners, and the life sciences sector, data collected in the past six months is beginning to show early signs of recovery and progress:
To capitalise and build on the progress to date, the government should adopt a focused implementation of the actions in the clinical research vision and the O’Shaughnessy review. Prioritising actions that will create tangible progress in the short to medium term and delivering them at pace and scale is crucial to enabling more patients to benefit from research and regaining the global pharmaceutical industry’s confidence in the UK.
ABPI, together with the Association of Medical Research Charities, has called for a UK-wide strategy to improve inclusivity in clinical research. The co-produced 'Achieving inclusivity in clinical research' report contains recommendations to support the effective development of medicines through better representation in research.
Between 2019 and 2022; 56% of new medicines were made available to patients in England and 54% were made available in Scotland. This has declined compared to the past period for both nations.
Source: Office for Life Sciences (OLS) Life sciences competitiveness indicators (2024)
Medicines are a fundamental tool in the treatment of many diseases. New medicines are constantly being researched and developed with the goal of improving health outcomes – but right now the UK is slower than many similar countries, and we think it can do better.
UK patients continue to miss out on the best standard of care, with the UK among the lowest users of new medicines in the developed world. This contributes to UK health outcomes continuing to fall behind, with research showing that, when looking at preventable and treatable causes of mortality, the UK is 16th and 18th respectively out of 19 comparable countries.
These issues are contributing significantly to a shrinking labour force and stalling productivity: ill health among working age people is costing the UK £43 billion annually.
A sustained approach to support equitable and early use of NICE-approved medicines will improve health outcomes by reducing disease progression, help to address NHS capacity challenges, and drive improvements in UK productivity and economic output.
We believe that a strong partnership between NHS and industry is the best way to optimise the value of new medicines and improve outcomes for patients. Collaboration between the NHS and industry delivers a ‘triple win’ of improved patient outcomes, more efficient use of NHS resources and evidence of impact for industry.
Explore examples of NHS-industry partnerships and how they can support the delivery of NHS priorities.
The value pharmaceutical companies bring to health systems through medicine and vaccine innovations is better shaped and informed across the life cycle of medicine through the insight and experience of patients living with a condition, sharing what really matters to them, their families, and their communities. ABPI’s work with both our Patient Advisory Council and Patient Organisation Forum supports our mission for the UK to be the best place in the world to research, develop and access medicines and vaccines to improve patient care.
The Patient Advisory Council is a senior team that provides the ABPI Board and Senior Executive Team with meaningful patient engagement and insights.
The Patient Organisation Forum is a network of patient/health charities and pharmaceutical companies, with a shared goal of supporting equitable access to research and innovation for UK patients.
