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Access through your institution Buy or subscribe The pharmaceutical and biotech industries are smarting over the UK government's strong-arm tactics but are putting a brave face on
matters, probably because they have escaped with a price cut of only 5% instead of the 10% originally put on the table by ministers. “Pharma and biotech have ended up with a lot better deal
than might have been thought at the beginning,” says Aisling Burnand, chief executive of the London-based UK Biotechnology Industry Association (BIA). Moreover, she says, biotech companies
have been buoyed by the government's willingness to leave initial pricing for new medicines in the manufacturers' hands. For the past several years, drug prices in Britain have
been controlled by an indirect method called the Pharmaceutical Price Regulation Scheme (PPRS). Under this framework, companies set their own price when launching a new drug, but have only a
limited capacity to make further price increases. The scheme also places a ceiling on profits. Any company that exceeds its permitted profit cap has to refund the excess to the state-run
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calculated during checkout ADDITIONAL ACCESS OPTIONS: * Log in * Learn about institutional subscriptions * Read our FAQs * Contact customer support AUTHOR INFORMATION AUTHORS AND
AFFILIATIONS * London Peter Mitchell Authors * Peter Mitchell View author publications You can also search for this author inPubMed Google Scholar RIGHTS AND PERMISSIONS Reprints and
permissions ABOUT THIS ARTICLE CITE THIS ARTICLE Mitchell, P. UK strong arms industry over drug pricing. _Nat Biotechnol_ 26, 846–847 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1038/nbt0808-846c Download
citation * Issue Date: August 2008 * DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nbt0808-846c SHARE THIS ARTICLE Anyone you share the following link with will be able to read this content: Get shareable
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