Key Highlights :
Bristol?Myers Squibb will be introducing Cobenfy, a new antipsychotic, to the UK on the same list price as in the US.
The medicine targets schizophrenia unmet needs, which impact 1 in 100 of the UK population.
BMS will discuss with NICE and NHS but will pull out if the value of the drug is not appreciated in price negotiations.
Key Background :
BMS's strategy of price comparability of the UK list price to the US price is uncommon, as UK healthcare systems pay for drugs on cost-effectiveness and tend to produce cheaper prices than in the U.S. NICE evaluates new medicines to assess if their clinical benefit is worth the cost to the public system, so price approvals are complex.
Pharmaceutical pricing has been under intense scrutiny all over the world in recent years. Governments and regulators are attempting to get drug companies to cut prices and make their products more affordable. International price pressures are dictating the launch strategy of BMS, with the firm pro-actively active in both its UK and U.S. businesses.
Cobenfy is also a new treatment that uses muscarinic receptor targeting, providing a new mechanism compared to current antipsychotic interventions. Schizophrenia is still an important issue in mental health care, with standard interventions tending to be unable to completely eliminate repeated hallucinations, delusions, and cognitive deficit.
By speeding up the regulatory approval in the UK, BMS aims to bring the medicine to patients earlier who require it. NICE and NHS partnership will be aimed at assessing the value of Cobenfy against cost, in order to grant patient access while matching with public health requirements.
The move also underscores how pharma firms increasingly are weighing global market forces, innovation, and global health obligations when making foreign launches. The approach could serve as a bellwether for price talks on other expensive specialty drugs in the UK and wider world.
About the Author
Kevin Smith
Kevin Smith is a Managing Editor at World Care Magazine.