Doctors call for curb on drug company profiteering

A group of 20 leading doctors today appeals to the Prime Minister to curb profiteering by drug companies that are exploiting a legal loophole to make millions of pounds from the NHS.

In an open letter published in the British Medical Journal, the hospital consultants accuse the companies of obtaining licences for existing drugs and then imposing massive rises in their price. In one case, a company making an intravenous version of the painkiller ibuprofen charges £6,575 per gram compared with 8 pence per gram for the tablet. Another case involves a drug for a rare muscle disorder which used to cost about £1,000 per patient a year. After a drug company modified it, the price rose to between £40,000 and £70,000 a year.

The price hikes are allowed under rules designed to encourage firms to develop treatments known as "orphan drugs" for rare conditions which it would not otherwise be economic for them to do. But many companies are modifying existing drugs, and obtaining a licence for orphan diseases which then gives them sole rights to supply the drugs and raise prices. A spokesperson for the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry said: "As orphan diseases involve small populations, it can be difficult to make a return on R&D investment."