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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Business
Lisa O’Carroll and Denis Campbell

NHS to pay 25% more for innovative drugs after UK–US zero-tariff deal

pills in their original packaging
Trade in medicines has largely been duty-free under a 1994 World Trade Organization agreement. Photograph: Yves Herman/Reuters

The UK has agreed to pay 25% more for new medicines by 2035 as part of a US-UK drug pricing deal that will cost an estimated additional £3bn a year.

The transatlantic agreement will also see the health service in England, which currently spends £14.4bn a year on innovative therapies, double the percentage of GDP it allocates to buying such products, from 0.3% to 0.6% over the next decade.

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