Patients missing out on drugs due to NHS cost-cutting, claims minister

The NHS’s success in driving down the cost of drugs has meant fewer medicines are available for patients, a government minister has admitted.

Chris McDonald, minister for science, innovation and investment at the Department and Health and Social Care and the Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade, said: ”If you do an international comparison, the NHS runs extremely lean… it does a huge amount with its budget.

“But the consequence of that is, we’ve heard the NHS is world leading in driving down the cost of pharmaceuticals, and as a result there are a number of pharmaceuticals we don’t have available on the NHS.”

The NHS has historically been regarded as a world leader in pushing down the cost of medicines, although industry groups have said the UK lags behind other comparable nations in access to new ones.

The government has committed to doubling the NHS spend on new medicines to 0.6 per cent of GDP by 2036, as part of a wider UK-US trade deal. The share of the NHS budget going on drugs will also rise from 10 per cent to 12 per cent, according to the agreement.

Under the plans, the cost-effectiveness threshold used by NICE (the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence) to evaluate whether to adopt new medicines has been lowered, meaning more drugs will be approved.

The move has been welcomed by industry but has faced criticism from MPs and think tanks over concerns that it will divert funding from existing NHS services.

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Source: HSJ, 30 September 2026