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National Audit Office

Warwick Smith, Director General of Medicines UK, said:

"Generic medicines provide enormous value to the NHS providing annual savings of around £13billion and increasing access for patients. The UK benefits from some of the lowest prices in Europe.

There have been some recent price rises principally due to currency fluctuations. More specifically, regulatory issues impacting two volume suppliers have led to shortages of some individual products and their prices have increased as other manufacturers have stepped in to fill the gap.

The Department of Health and Social Care - in discussion with the PSNC -  has granted an unusually high number of concessionary reimbursement prices to reflect this. We expect the number of products with concessionary prices and the level of those prices to decline as the market stabilises.

It is right that the National Audit Office investigates the way in which these processes work and we look forward to their conclusions."