Jas Matharu checks on his computer for the availability of amoxicillin. A form of penicillin to treat coughs and throat infections, it is one of the most routinely prescribed drugs that the NHS uses.
“Somebody has made £18 profit there,” says Mr Matharu, who runs a home-delivery prescription service from a warehouse on the outskirts of Wolverhampton.Eventually, the NHS tariffs will be increased and backdated, and he is – usually – reimbursed his losses. But the uncertainty makes it difficult for him to plan ahead, and he has to put the money up front for the cashflow. More pertinently it is the taxpayer – and the hard-pressed NHS – that ends up footing the bill.
He is not the only one to be asking questions. Last month, the Competitions and Markets Authority announced it would be carrying out an investigation into the whether the major wholesalers of prescription drugs are acting in collusion with one another in a bid to inflate the price of medicines.In June last year the CMA imposed a £63 million on pharmaceutical giant Pfizer for abusing its dominant position to overcharge the NHS for a lifesaving epilepsy drug.
“Pfizer disagrees with the CMA’s latest infringement decision, published in July 2022, and is appealing against it,” the company said in a statement.