Health Service Medical Supplies (Costs) Act 2017
| Act of Parliament | |
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| Long title | An Act to make provision in connection with controlling the cost of health service medicines and other medical supplies; to make provision in connection with the provision of pricing and other information by those manufacturing, distributing or supplying those medicines and supplies, and other related products, and the disclosure of that information; and for connected purposes. |
|---|---|
| Citation | 2017 c. 23 |
| Introduced by | Jeremy Hunt (Commons) Lord O’Shaughnessy (Lords) |
| Territorial extent | England and Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland |
| Dates | |
| Royal assent | 27 April 2017 |
| History of passage through Parliament | |
| Text of statute as originally enacted | |
| Revised text of statute as amended | |
The Health Service Medical Supplies (Costs) Act 2017 (c. 23) is an act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom.
Background
[edit]Pharmaceutical companies were accused of charging extremely high prices for certain drugs in reporting in the Times.[1]
At the time of the passage of the act, the National Health Service spent £15,000,000,000 on medicines and medicinal supplies.[2]
Provisions
[edit]It provides that pharmaceutical companies can be compelled to reduce the price of a generic medicine or introduce other controls on branded products in cases where charges are "unreasonable".[3]
The act requires that access patient access be considered in the way drugs are priced.[4]
References
[edit]- ^ Sweetman, Andrew. "The Medical Costs Act — what it means for pharma and pharmacy". Pharmaceutical Journal. Archived from the original on 27 January 2022. Retrieved 30 August 2025.
- ^ Samuels, Alec (1 March 2018). "Control of the cost of medicines and medical supplies to the NHS: Health Service and Medical Supplies (Costs) Act 2017". Medico-Legal Journal. 86 (1): 16–18. doi:10.1177/0025817217704809. ISSN 0025-8172.
- ^ Webber, Esther (3 May 2017). "New legislation passed to prevent excessive price hiking of generic drugs". Pharmaceutical Journal. Retrieved 30 August 2025.
{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: deprecated archival service (link) - ^ Webber, Esther (20 April 2017). "Government concession in pre-election rush to tie up loose ends". BBC News. Archived from the original on 3 December 2021. Retrieved 30 August 2025.
