Scotland puts industry rebates back into medicines fund

The Scottish government launched the L40 million ($63.9 million) New Medicines Fund to provide NHS Scotland patients with greater access to drugs for rare diseases and end of life conditions. The fund was established using the rebates paid by the pharmaceutical industry under the U.K.'s 2013 Pharmaceutical Price Regulation Scheme (PPRS).

Last year, the U.K. government and the Association of British Pharmaceutical Industry (ABPI) agreed to a new five-year PPRS that set a fixed limit on how much the NHS will spend on branded drugs, with any sales over the limit paid back to the government in the form of a rebate. ...