US ambassador warns pharma firms will quit UK if NHS does not pay more for drugs

US pharmaceutical companies will “shut down” their sites in the UK if the NHS does not pay more for drugs, the US ambassador to the UK has warned.

Warren Stephens on Wednesday said further American businesses will axe future investments if “there are not changes made and fast”.

It comes as the Government is mulling raising the amount the health service in England pays firms for medicines by up to 25% under plans to stave off tariffs threatened by Donald Trump.

The row has been seen as a reason why US-based Merck and AstraZeneca cancelled or paused investments in the UK in recent months.

Mr Stephens told a British-American Business gala lunch at London’s Savoy Hotel: “The UK needs to continue addressing its pricing structures for medicines to ensure it can compete for investment from US firms.

“Multiple pharma companies have cancelled future investments here, and there is a growing list of drugs not being offered to UK citizens.

“If there are not changes made and fast, pharma businesses will not only cancel future investments, they will shut down their facilities in the UK.

“This would be a major blow to a country that prides itself, rightly so, on its life sciences sector.

“I understand progress is being made on this as we speak, which is a good first step.”

Last month it was reported that officials briefed proposals, including raising the threshold used by England’s NHS spending watchdog by 25%, to the Trump administration.

Energy policy

Mr Trump’s man in London also hit out at the Labour Government’s energy policy, describing it as “the chief obstacle” to US-UK trade ties.

He said: “Energy costs in the United Kingdom are too high on which to run an industrialised economy.

“Every business I meet, in every sector, complains to me that energy costs make the UK an expensive, and difficult, place to do business. For example, the permitting process to get virtually anything done is a headwind to any company looking to expand.

“It does not take an economic savant to know that is not a good combination.

Improving the economy all starts and ends with energy. If there are not major reforms to UK energy policy, then the UK’s position as a premier global economy is vulnerable.”