Stephen Williams
The health service in Manchester has signed a deal with the pharmaceutical industry that could lead to the authorities paying for medicines based on their efficacy.
The agreement between the Greater Manchester Health and Social Care Partnership — which is in charge of the region’s £6bn health and social care budget — and the pharmaceutical industry, announced on 24 February 2017, will create the Greater Manchester and Pharmaceutical Industry Partnership Group.
The new organisation will set out to improve the use and safety of medicines and use patient data to enhance the development and delivery of medicines in the Greater Manchester region.
The deal allows Greater Manchester to explore ways to pay for medicines based on patient outcomes and is intended to raise the profile of Greater Manchester as a major industry destination for the development of new treatments.
“Our ambition is to be the safest and most effective place to receive medicines in the world and this unique step will help us on that journey,” says Jon Rouse, chief officer of Greater Manchester Health and Social Care Partnership. “We want to be able to improve people’s health, get the very best value for money from our medicines budget and continue to raise Greater Manchester’s profile as a global hub for investment in research and development.”
The Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry, a trade association of companies in the UK producing prescription medicines, says that the partnership will help build on the success of the Salford Lung Study and develop Greater Manchester into a global hub for life sciences research, rivalling the “golden triangle” of London, Oxford and Cambridge.
The GSK-sponsored study in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease patients — results from which were first published in May 2016
— harnessed the region’s integrated electronic health records, which bring together real-time patient data from GP, pharmacy and hospital settings.
Greater Manchester became the first region in England to gain control of its healthcare spending in April 2016 and serves 2.8 million people. Each year, spending on medicines accounts for around £1bn of Greater Manchester’s £6bn health and social care budget.
