‘We want to see more investment flow to Britain,” the chancellor, Rachel Reeves, urged of big pharmaceutical companies this month, as she indicated that the government was willing to increase the price it pays for NHS drugs. Ministers are likely to announce a rethink on pricing soon, potentially by the end of this week.
But the size of that rise remains uncertain. The big question is whether it will be generous enough to convince pharmaceutical companies, which account for a near-£100bn slice of the UK economy, to resume the investments they had paused in a strong-arm campaign to secure concessions from government.
