Pharmaceutical Policy in the UK: from Gentleman’s Agreement toOFDRUG?

Pharmaceutical policy in the UK involves a trade-off between the interest of the National HealthService in controlling expenditure on drugs and the interest of the pharmaceutical industry inproviding an incentive for research and development. Since 1957, the Pharmaceutical PriceRegulation Scheme (PPRS) has been the mechanism that has made this trade-off. The PPRS upuntil the early-1990s is accurately described as a gentleman's agreement; it was a high trust,relationship-based mode of regulation. However, the growth in the number of pharmaceuticalpolicy instruments during the 1990s has introduced a degree of instability into the regulation ofthe pharmaceutical industry. This paper suggests the creation of an OFDRUG as a means ofameliorating the effects of this instability.