Channel 4 Dispatches reveals how President Trump and US drugs giants want to force the NHS to pay more for US medicines (apparently Trump sees Brit’s as ‘freeloaders who get their drugs on the cheap’) and how UK Trade officials are already holding secret talks with their US counterparts as well as directly with US Pharmaceutical companies.
This shocking documentary explains how British trade officials have been told to censor their emails and how US trade negotiators are being heavily lobbied by large US Pharmaceutical companies (who have already spent over half a $Billion in 2yrs) demanding that they secure ‘increased access to the British market’.
To give an indication of just how powerful the US Pharma lobby is, they explain how one of their primary objectives is to block any competition in order to have absolute control over the pricing and how, even though there might be significantly cheaper alternatives currently available in the UK and Europe, these drugs are currently not permitted access to the US market.
A Whitehall source also told Channel 4 that there have already been 6 official meetings between US & UK trade negotiators and that drugs pricing was on the table for discussion at all 6 meetings and that senior UK trade officials have also had 5 additional, undeclared, face to face meetings with US drugs firms.
Dr Andrew Hill, an expert on global drugs pricing, calculated that the UK currently spends £18Billion a year on drugs pricing but that this would jump up to £45Billion a year if the UK was forced into an exclusivity deal with the US. This equate to £500Million a week extra to pay, just on drugs alone
