Drug companies would only be paid by the NHS if their treatments improve a patient's health, under radical plans unveiled by the Conservatives.

Tories 'would only pay drug companies if treatments work'
Article in the Telegraph

Extract:

"The Conservatives are pledging to overhaul the system if elected. Mr Lansley said: "Instead of the NHS denying access to drugs because they say it's not cost effective - as NICE has done recently with four kidney cancer drugs - we should encourage the NHS to use new medicines which are clinically effective, and agree subsequently to pay the drugs companies according to the therapeutic benefit.

"In other words, drugs companies should only be paid according to the benefits that a drug brings to patients. NICE should be involved in this process, working with drug companies to set fair prices for new medicines - rather than refusing new treatments which it deems too expensive."

Mr Lansley says there are already small-scale examples of drugs companies agreeing to be paid on results. For example, he draws attention to a constituent of his who needed a drug to treat bone marrow cancer. Johnson & Johnson, the drug's manufacturer, agreed with the Department of Health to only be paid for the drug for patients where it has been successful.

The shadow Health Secretary said: "At the moment, everyone loses out - patients don't get new and potentially life saving drugs, the NHS can't innovate and meet the needs of patients, and drugs companies don't get the opportunity to introduce their new therapies…Every time a patient dies having been denied a new drug which should be available to them it is a tragedy."

He added: "The Government should act swiftly now to reform the system before any more people's lives are tragically cut short."

The Conservative proposals, to be set out in a speech by Mr Lansley to the CBI today, are likely to be welcomed by patient groups and drug companies."

I welcome that idea. Well done for that bright idea, Andrew Lansley! - That would be a start! - But since prescription drugs do far more harm than good, the drug companies should have to pay money to the NHS for all the adverse effects/harm the patients suffer as a result of taking Big Pharma's concoctions...

Lose weight, reduce your risk of most cancers, high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes, stroke, heart disease, heart attack, vascular dementia, osteopenia, osteoporosis, hypercholesterolaemia, depression, liver and kidney problems, and improve your health in many other ways without drugs or expense by eating less salt! - Try it! - You will feel so much better!

Read my Mensa article on Obesity and the Salt Connection

And see Sodium in foods and

Associated health conditions

See advice for pregnant mothers