July 2025 Category M prices announced

The Drug Tariff Category M pricelist for July 2025 has been published on the NHS Business Services Authority (NHSBSA) website.

Based on our analysis of the Category M price list for July 2025, Community Pharmacy England estimates there will be an overall reduction in reimbursement on like-for-like Category M medicines of approximately -£35m per quarter, resulting from the combination of:

• A margin adjustment of -£13m informed by the latest results from the margin survey of independent pharmacies
• An adjustment to reflect movements in the underlying market (i.e. movements in buying prices of medicines). These are systematic and not subject to negotiation.

Results from the Margin Survey of Independent Community Pharmacies up to Q3 2024/25 indicated that there remained an over delivery of margin, and therefore in the normal course of business a reduction in the Drug Tariff would be expected. However, in discussions with the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC), Community Pharmacy England had argued for no reduction in the July Drug Tariff. The matter was ultimately referred to Ministers, who determined that a margin adjustment would be applied to the July Drug Tariff.

Community Pharmacy England’s Director of Pharmacy Funding Mike Dent said:

“When Community Pharmacy England was consulted by DHSC regarding the changes to the July Drug Tariff, we firmly emphasized the need for stabilization in the market, and smoothing of funding delivery to pharmacies, and warned that continuing the trend of ever decreasing medicine prices is not a sustainable long term approach.

Medicine prices have already been driven down to unviable levels, and this is having significant detrimental impacts on the ability of pharmacy teams to procure many medicines for patients in a timely or reliable manner.

Our view, which we have strongly emphasized to DHSC and NHS, is that Ministers should be seeking to invest in a robust and stable supply chain, and not simply aim to extract every penny out of an already fragile ecosystem. Continuing the race to the bottom by the further squeezing of the Drug Tariff is only going to exacerbate the supply difficulties which are damaging to pharmacies and ultimately patients.”