Thank you for your request for information about the following:

I am working on the research about identifying cases of unfair prices in biosimilar and biologic drugs in high-income countries. I am wondering if I could request a below dataset for the study.

Dataset should contain:

Data period: 2012 to 2023

Active Ingredients: Bevacizumab., trastuzumab, Rituximab

Approval date and marketed date in the UK

Ex-factory/Manufacturer price

Wholesale price

Reimbursement Price

Price per DDD

Retail Price/ Patient Price Expenses NHS or public sectors Expenses patients

Volume in DDD Volume in packages (first line pharmacies) /in units (hospitals) I am not sure whether this is the right way to request it. Please let me know if you have any clue of this process. Looking forward to hearing from you

You clarified your request with:

Concerning the Active Ingredients, what I wanted to request is the list of biologic and biosimilar products corresponding to three ingredients.

And then, all requested types of prices of each product could be provided with it. So the information will be about the historical price of those products.

• Data Period : start of the first approval date to 2023
• List of biologic and biosimilar products corresponding to Bevacizumab, Trastuzumab Rituximab
• Ex-factory/Manufacturer price
• Wholesale price
• Reimbursement Price

And if possible, I also have additional requests for the information, is this information below also available?

• Margin rate for medicine price (In particular, Biologic and Biosimilar product prices)
• Price setting regulation: legal framework and methodology

Your clarified request was received on 31 March 2023 and has been dealt with under the terms of the Freedom of Information Act 2000.

Response

Information not held

• Approval date and marketed date in the UK
• Ex-factory/Manufacturer price
• Wholesale price
• Price per DDD
• Retail Price/Patient Price Expenses NHS or public sectors Expenses patients
• Volume in DDD Volume in packages (first line pharmacies) /in units (hospitals)
• Margin rate for medicine price (In particular, Biologic and Biosimilar product prices)

I am writing to advise you that following a search of our paper and electronic records, I have established that the above information you requested is not held by the NHS Business Services Authority.

Price setting regulation: legal framework and methodology

Reimbursement policy is laid out in the Drug Tariff which is produced on a monthly basis on behalf of the Department of Health and Social Care and published on our website https://www.nhsbsa.nhs.uk/pharmacies-gp-practices-and-appliance-contractors/drug-tariff

Remaining information

A copy of the information is attached.

NHS Prescription Services process prescriptions for Pharmacy Contractors, Appliance Contractors, Dispensing Doctors and Personal Administration with information then used to make payments to pharmacists and appliance contractors in England for prescriptions dispensed in primary care settings (other arrangements are in place for making payments to Dispensing Doctors and Personal Administration). This involves processing over 1 billion prescription items and payments totalling over £9 billion each year. The information gathered from this process is then used to provide information on costs and trends in prescribing in England and Wales to over 25,000 registered NHS and Department of Health and Social Care users.

Data source: CDR

CDR is the database that supports the dm+d browser. The dm+d (dictionary of medicines and devices) is a NHS dictionary containing unique identifiers (codes) and associated textual descriptions for representing medicines and medical devices in information systems and electronic communications. It has been developed for use throughout the NHS as a means of uniquely identifying the specific medicines and medical devices used in the diagnosis or treatment of patients.

Time period:

From date of first reimbursement price to present (25.04.2023).

Data:

List of all biologic and biosimilar products that hold a reimbursement price for the Chemical Substances of Bevacizumab, Trastuzumab and Rituximab.

Please note: The NHSBSA have not been informed of any reimbursement price changes for these products after their initial reimbursement price was added to the NHSBSA drug database.

The reimbursement prices listed for these products apply to community dispensing and do not reflect prices where the products have been prescribed and dispensed in a Secondary Care setting.

Reimbursement Price (pence):

It is the price of the product and pack (in pence), this price being used for reimbursement in a community setting for the dispensing month for which the product is submitted for payment.

If you have any queries regarding the data provided, or if you plan on publishing the data, please contact foidata@nhsbsa.nhs.uk ensuring you quote the above reference. This is important to ensure that the figures are not misunderstood or misrepresented.

If you plan on producing a press or broadcast story based upon the data please contact nhsbsa.communicationsteam@nhs.net. This is important to ensure that the figures are not misunderstood or misrepresented.

The information supplied to you continues to be protected by the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 and is subject to NHSBSA copyright. This information is licenced under the terms of the Open Government Licence detailed at: http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence/version/3/

Should you wish to re-use the information you must include the following statement: “NHSBSA Copyright 2023” This information is licenced under the terms of the Open Government Licence:

http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence/version/3/

Failure to do so is a breach of the terms of the licence.

Information you receive which is not subject to NHSBSA Copyright continues to be protected by the copyright of the person, or organisation, from which the information originated.

Please obtain their permission before reproducing any third party (non NHSBSA Copyright) information.