US is the best place for drug companies to invest, says boss of London-based GSK
The chief executive of GSK has declared that the US is the best place for pharmaceutical companies to invest.Emma Walmsley said the US led the world in launches of drugs and vaccines and, alongside China, was the best market for business development.She is the latest boss of a leading UK drugmaker to talk up business opportunities on the other side of the Atlantic, after AstraZeneca’s Pascal Soriot hailed the “vital importance of the US”.The UK government, which has been trying to strengthen the pharmaceutical sector, confirmed on Wednesday that the proportion of revenues from new medicine sales that companies need to pay back to the NHS would fall next year – from 22.5% to under 15%.
Reducing the record clawback rate was a central demand of the sector but negotiations broke down in late August.Several large companies, including AstraZeneca and US company MSD/Merck, then cancelled or paused large UK investments.The government has also been pressed into spending 25% more on new NHS medicines as part of a zero tariff deal with the US administration.Donald Trump, the US president, has criticised other rich countries for paying too little for drugs, leaving the US to shoulder much of the cost of medicines.US prices have historically been much higher, partly because of a complex system of intermediaries.
The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (Nice), which assesses drugs for use on the NHS, will for the first time raise the price threshold at which new medicines are seen to be cost-effective.In a consultation document published on Tuesday, the Department of Health went further and said it wanted to give ministers a limited power to set the cost-effectiveness threshold for new drugs.Spending on medicines is expected to increase by about £1bn over the next three years, depending on which medicines Nice decides to approve and the actual uptake, according to the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry (ABPI).This has raised concerns about less money to pay for health staff and equipment.The government says the revenue clawback rate for new medicines will drop to 14.
5% next year but payment rates for older, branded medicines will remain unchanged at between 10% and 35%.“It’s good that the amount of revenue companies will need to pay to the UK government has come down in 2026,” said Richard Torbett, the chief executive of the ABPI.Torbett also said the proposed 15% cap for the next three years should give companies more certainty but it was just a first step in making Britain more competitive: “Payment rates remain much higher than in similar countries, and there is work to do to accelerate the NHS’s adoption and use of cost-effective medicines to improve patient care.”In her interview with the BBC, Walmsley said GSK would not “shy away” from its interests in the US, where it makes half of its revenues.GSK recently outlined plans to invest $30bn (£23bn) in the US by 2030.
US is the best place for drug companies to invest, says boss of London-based GSK
The chief executive of GSK has declared that the US is the best place for pharmaceutical companies to invest.Emma Walmsley said the US led the world in launches of drugs and vaccines and, alongside China, was the best market for business development.She is the latest boss of a leading UK drugmaker to talk up business opportunities on the other side of the Atlantic, after AstraZeneca’s Pascal Soriot hailed the “vital importance of the US”.The UK government, which has been trying to strengthen the pharmaceutical sector, confirmed on Wednesday that the proportion of revenues from new medicine sales that companies need to pay back to the NHS would fall next year – from 22.5% to under 15%
Disney to invest $1bn in OpenAI, allowing characters in Sora video tool
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Temu’s European headquarters in Dublin have been raided by EU regulators investigating a potential breach of foreign subsidy regulations.The Chinese online retailer, which is already in the European Commission’s spotlight over alleged failures to prevent illegal content being sold on its app and website, was raided last week without warning or any subsequent publicity.“We can confirm that the commission has carried out an unannounced inspection at the premises of a company active in the e-commerce sector in the EU, under the foreign subsidies regulation,” a commission spokesperson said on Thursday.Temu was approached for comment.Its headquarters are on St Stephen’s Green, one of Dublin’s most prestigious addresses
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Slashing the tobacco excise might not be enough to lure smokers back to legal cigarettes, and could even widen the multi-billion dollar hole blown in the budget by the booming illicit trade, new research shows.The analysis from the e61 Institute comes as Jim Chalmers revealed next week’s mid-year fiscal update will reveal an extra $12.7bn in unanticipated spending, including an additional $6.3bn in higher than expected disaster relief payments.The treasurer said “the biggest job … has been making room for unavoidable pressures and payments without a substantial deterioration in the bottom line”
Fed cuts interest rates by a quarter point amid apparent split over US economy
The US Federal Reserve announced on Wednesday that it was cutting interest rates by a quarter point for the third time this year, as the embattled central bank appeared split over how best to manage the US economy.The Fed chair, Jerome Powell, has emphasized unity within the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC), the board of Fed leaders that sets interest rates. But the nine-to-three vote to lower rates to a range of 3.5% to 3.75% was divisive among the committee that tends to vote in unanimity
Leon to cut jobs and close fast food restaurants
Fast food chain Leon is planning to close restaurants and cut jobs, less than two months after it was bought back from Asda by its co-founder John Vincent.The chain said on Wednesday that it had appointed administrators to lead a restructuring programme, and it was considering how many of its 54 restaurants would need to shut. It did not say how many roles could be affected.Vincent, who founded Leon in 2004 with Henry Dimbleby, who later became a government food tsar, and chef Allegra McEvedy, bought the business back in October, four years after he sold it to the billionaire Issa brothers’ EG Group petrol forecourts business in a £100m deal.The chain has now hired advisers from Quantuma after applying for an administration order, and aims to put the business into administration as soon as possible, a process which will help it to manage debt payments as it attempts to secure its long-term future
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