October 2023 Category M prices announced
The Drug Tariff Category M pricelist for October 2023 has been published on the NHS Business Services Authority (NHSBSA) website.
At the end of Q4 2022/23 there remains an over delivery of medicine margin.
The October Category M pricelist includes:
- Adjustments for underlying market price movements in the reference period April-June 2023. Of particular note is the movement in reimbursement prices of Apixaban 2.5mg and 5mg tablets, which is reflective of the rapidly falling purchase prices of generic Apixaban tablets.
- The final phasing out of the extra £100m margin allowance that was agreed for the Community Pharmacy sector as part of the Year 4 and Year 5 funding settlement.
- A downward adjustment to bring the baseline back to £200milion per quarter.
At the request of Community Pharmacy England, no further adjustment was made to recoup the over delivery measured in Q4 2022/23 – although downward adjustments made in previous quarters to recoup over delivered margin were maintained. Community Pharmacy England will be discussing with DHSC over the next few months how to progress.
Regarding the ongoing issue of supply disruptions and medicine shortages, Community Pharmacy England’s Director of Pharmacy Funding, Mike Dent, said:
“We are very concerned that the long term restriction of Drug Tariff prices is driving significant dysfunction within the medicines supply chain. This reached crisis point in 2022, with the number and overall value of medicines with emergency price concession status setting new historic records from month to month.
The English reimbursement system has led to consistent downward pressures on medicine prices over the years, which the NHS has reaped significant long term benefits from. However this system is now in significant peril. Many medicines are experiencing major and long term supply disruptions, and pharmacy businesses risk losing hundreds or thousands of pounds a month on some medicines, due to the difference between prices they can procure medicines for and what the NHS will pay them.
We have seen the concession system running at what would previously have been considered ‘extreme’ levels for almost 2 years at this point. The NHS needs to realise that the current system is no longer viable, and that its attempts to suppress medicine prices at all costs has damaging ramifications for medicine supplies in this country, and is ultimately harmful for patients.”
