To start the year off with a bang, we thought we’d compare the generic product prices we get from our Pharmacy and Dispensing Doctor data suppliers with the Drug Tariff for each product.
This obviously excludes some products where there is no Drug Tariff specifically for that product and where the Pharmacy has to work out the prorata amount. However, we still had over 30,000 product prices per month to compare with the Drug Tariff for the equivalent products.
We found 2025 started with high numbers of unprofitable and breakeven product sales, but this number came down towards the end of the year. We did not include the concession prices because we wanted a specifically look at the long term drug tariff prices rather than temporary fixes that help Pharmacies but not Manufacturers to any great long-term extent.
The number of products where the market price was above the Drug Tariff started at 10,000 in January 2025 but declined to the end of the year when it was a little over 5,000, a 50% reduction. Similarly, the number of breakeven products where the market price and the Drug Tariff were the same started at over 2,200 in January but ended the year at 450.
Charles Joynson, WaveData MD, suggests that this indicates one of two things:
The Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) are modulating drug prices more accurately.
Or
Manufacturers are becoming more efficient in their supply to the UK.