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7 Health Committee House of Commons London SW1A 0AA Tel Fax From Dr Sarah Wollaston MP, Chair The Rt Hon Jeremy Hunt MP Secretary of State for Health Department of Health Letter by Dear Secretary of State, 13 June 2016 I write following the alarming story published on Friday 3 June by The Times regarding apparently extraordinary rises in drug prices (Brothers cost NHS millions by exploiting drug price loophole 3 June 2016). As the story outlines, several medicines which have previously been marketed as a brand have been subsequently marketed as generic medication with a huge increase in price to the NHS. In this one report alone, focusing on the actions of one pharmaceutical company, the increase in prices has cost the NHS in excess of ten million pounds last year simply due to the recategorisation of medications. I am deeply concerned about the financial impact of this practice on the NHS. At a time when many NHS organisations are facing significant financial challenges practices that artificially inflate drug prices put a significant additional strain on resources. I am also extremely concerned that the actions of the pharmaceutical company in question have been uncovered by a newspaper investigation rather than being identified and acted upon by regulators. I understand that you have asked the Competition and Markets Authority to look urgently at these issues as part of its continuing investigations into excessive drug pricing. This is a welcome step but it is worrying that such apparent abuses have been going undetected and that the scale of the issue and the full cost to the NHS is unknown. As Secretary of State, what steps can you take to ensure that such allegations are appropriately investigated as a matter of urgency and to identify and investigate other pricing irregularities if they exist? The Times article focuses on the behaviour of one pharmaceutical company but it appears from the reporting that this practice has been known about previously and that other companies have used the same strategy. I would also like to know how such extraordinary rises in medication prices will be tackled in future. Given the responsibility of the NHS to spend its resources wisely, what measures will be put in place to ensure that the NHS always obtains value for money when purchasing medicines, and that any abuses such as those alleged in the Times article are identified early and stopped?

8 I attach also a letter from Professor John Wass of the University of Oxford. I understand that he has been in touch with your Department for over a year concerning this issue, but has not succeeded in prompting appropriate action. I would be grateful for sight of your response to his correspondence. I would be grateful for a response to this letter by Monday 27 June. Yours sincerely Dr Sarah Wollaston MP Chair of the Committee

9 Professor John A. H. Wass, MA MD FRCP Consultant in Endocrinology OCDEM Endocrinology Department The Churchill Hospital Old Road Headington Oxford OX3 7LJ The Manor Hospital Beech Road Headington Oxford OX3 7RP Tel: Fax: Please send all correspondence to the Manor Hospital 10th June 2016 Rt Hon Jeremy Hunt MP Secretary of State Department of Health Richmond House 79 Whitehall London SW1A 2NS Dear Secretary of State, I am writing about the major price hikes in generic drugs about which I have been alerting the Department of Health for well over a year. You will doubtless be familiar with the fact that this has been publicised in The Times within the last week. I think it is frankly scandalous that huge sums of money have been expended on these drugs and the Dept. of Health, despite being alerted to them as I say over a year ago, seems to have done nothing or very little to ameliorate the problem. Firm action needs to be taken. Huge sums of NHS money are being wasted. The price hikes are up to 1000%. We are told that there are expensive processes for quality control but when asked what has happened in Europe, when I went to the department, they did not know. These price hikes do not occur in Europe. Solutions need to be found which include not allowing monopoly provision and possibly the NHS developing a plant to manufacture some of these drugs. I look forward to hearing from you further with your potential solutions. Yours sincerely, Professor John Wass John A.H. Wass, Consultant Endocrinologist and Professor of Endocrinology, University of Oxford