Record investments and exports for UK pharmaceutical sector

The UK's pharmaceutical industry invested a record £10m a day in the search for new medicines last year and generated a best-ever annual trade surplus of £3bn.

Investment in UK r&d topped £3.5bn, while exports reached a record £11.8bn. But Britons still spend twice as much on both holidays and alcohol than on medicines, according to newly released figures from the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry (ABPI) in its 2003 Annual Review.

Sales to the National Health Service (NHS) rose to £9.5bn a year yet continued to represent only 12% of total NHS expenditure, and the UK remains near the bottom of the international league in terms of spend on medicines and use of the latest modern treatments. In real terms, NHS medicines prices are more than 15% lower than 10 years ago, and the average prescription now costs the NHS around £11, while a day in hospital costs an average of £200. 'As a nation we spend 40p per person a day on medicines but 76p on holidays and 88p on alcohol,' the review points out.

'This is a record of investment and achievement that is unmatched by any other industry in Britain and in which the UK is truly a world leader,' said Dr John Patterson, president of the ABPI. 'But there remains much more that could and should be done to ensure all patients benefit from the use of modern medicines. Postcode prescribing across the UK continues to be a major problem and our place in the international health league is still low.'

Latest international data show that spending on medicines accounts for 0.88% of GDP in the UK. Countries such as France and Spain spend 1.34%, Italy 1.12% and Germany 1.02%. A survey of 10 leading industrial nations around the world puts Britain one from bottom in the use of the latest medicines launched in the past five years.

However, only the US develops more successful new medicines than the UK. Of the world's top-selling 100 medicines 25 were discovered and developed in the UK.

Among more than 20 new medicines launched in the UK last year were innovative treatments for HIV, pneumonia, rheumatoid arthritis, heart disease, diabetes, prostate hyperplasia, hormone deficiency, asthma, eczema, osteoporosis, Crohn's disease, medicines used in bone marrow transplantation and for surgical pain, and the first UK contraceptive patch.

A survey of ABPI member companies highlighted the extent of collaborative research between universities and UK-based r&d facilities of the industry. Companies are directly involved with nearly 700 doctoral studentships and 400 collaborative projects. They invest more than £70m a year in such work with UK universities.