Committee publication · Correspondence · 25 March 2025

Letter from GSK relating to life sciences and industrial strategy, 14 March 2025

Summary

GSK writes to the Business and Trade Committee following oral evidence on life sciences industrial strategy, highlighting gaps in the UK's commercial environment for medicines pricing and access. The company argues that low spending on innovative medicines (9% vs 15–18% among peers), restricted patient access, and an unpredictable VPAG payment rate (22% in 2025, up from 15.3%) are deterring investment and damaging UK competitiveness, and urges the government to rebalance pricing policy alongside industrial strategy ambitions.

Key findings

UK spends only 9% of healthcare spending on innovative medicines compared to 15–18% in Italy, Germany, France, and Spain; just 21 UK patients receive new medicines for every 100 in the EU.
Poor medicine access correlates with worse health outcomes: UK has 60% more years lost to lung cancer than Sweden or Finland.
VPAG payment rate set at 22% for 2025, a sharp increase from expected 15.3%, significantly higher than comparable international schemes (below 10%), creating unpredictability for investors.
Investing in and accelerating adoption of innovative medicines could reduce incidence of six major diseases by 20% and raise GDP by £26.3 billion annually within 10 years.
UK inward FDI ranking in life sciences dropped from 4th (2018) to 8th (2023) among comparator countries, correlated with deteriorating commercial environment.

Tone

Adversarial

Topics

life-sciencesindustrial-strategymedicines-pricingpublic-financenhs-reform

Key actors

Audrey Yvernault (GSK VP, Global Corporate Government Affairs & Policy), Liam Byrne MP (Chair, Business & Trade Select Committee), GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), NICE (National Institute for Health and Care Excellence), EFPIA (European Federation of Pharmaceutical Industries and Associations), Tony Blair Institute for Global Change, UK Government / Department of Health and Social Care

Notable line

“Steep and unpredictable increases in the payment rate such as those seen recently are harmful to the UK as a place to invest and do business compared to competitors.”

Key Quotes

“UK spending on innovative medicines is the lowest amongst its peers. Italy, Germany, France, and Spain spend 17%, 17%, 15%, and 18% of their healthcare spending on innovative medicines respectively i . In the UK it is just 9%.”
— Audrey Yvernault, GSK · Establishing disparity in medicine investment levels

“… for every 100 patients that get a new medicine in the EU, just 21 patients in the UK will”
— Audrey Yvernault, GSK · Illustrating patient access gap

“… investing in and accelerating the adoption of innovative medicines and vaccines in the NHS could result in a 20% reduction in the incidence of the six major diseases keeping people out of work”
— Audrey Yvernault, GSK · Economic case for expanding medicine access

“For 2025 the rate has been set at a more than 22% v , a significant increase from the expected 15.3%. This is in addition to discounts companies already make to the NHS and existing mechanisms to ensure each medicine represents value for money.”
— Audrey Yvernault, GSK · Describing VPAG payment rate increase and cumulative burden on companies

“Companies view the commercial environment as an integral part of the UK environment, and it does hold back investor sentiment.”
— Audrey Yvernault, GSK · Linking pricing policy to foreign investment deterrent

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Source · parliament.uk record ↗