The price of hope has never been starker. While Canadians pay just £60 for the same monthly supply of Ozempic that costs the NHS nearly £150, Downing Street has finally blinked. The Prime Minister has ordered an urgent pharmaceutical pricing review after a cross-party group of MPs presented evidence of staggering regional price disparities for the blockbuster diabetes drug.
For the millions of Britons living with type 2 diabetes, Ozempic is not a lifestyle choice but a lifeline. Yet the NHS, which negotiates bulk prices for the whole country, is paying close to two and a half times what Canadian provinces pay. The data, leaked from a Commons Health Select Committee inquiry, shows that the list price of a month’s supply in Canada is £60.87. In the UK, the NHS is paying £145.92. That is a difference of £85 per patient per month. For the roughly 900,000 patients prescribed Ozempic in England alone, that adds up to an extra £918 million a year.
“Families in Leeds and Manchester are paying for this through their taxes and through their prescriptions,” said Labour MP Lucy Powell, who chairs the committee. “We are being ripped off by the pharmaceutical giants. This is not just a scandal, it is a tax on the sick.”
The government’s response, announced earlier today, is a sweeping review of the Pharmaceutical Price Regulation Scheme (PPRS), the voluntary agreement between the Department of Health and branded drug manufacturers. The review will examine pricing “transparency” and the ability of the NHS to access the same deals as other rich nations. A Downing Street spokesperson said: “The Prime Minister is clear that British patients must not be charged unjustifiably high prices for medicines that are available far cheaper elsewhere. This review will ensure we get value for money for the taxpayer and fair access for patients.”
However, critics are already calling the review a “delaying tactic”. The British Medical Association’s GP committee chair, Dr Richard Vautrey, noted that the PPRS review was due anyway next year. “We need action now, not more consultation,” he said. “While the government reviews, patients are still waiting for prescriptions and the NHS is bleeding millions.”
The issue goes beyond Ozempic. The same pattern is repeated across a range of drugs, particularly those for chronic conditions like asthma, heart disease and mental health. In the US, the list price for Ozempic is even higher, but Canada and other European countries negotiate hard. The UK, once a model for price controls, has lost its bargaining edge.
Union representatives from the manufacturing and public sectors were quick to tie the pricing failure to the broader cost of living crisis. “Working people are being squeezed on every side,” said Sharon Graham, general secretary of Unite. “They are paying more for their prescriptions, more for the food that makes them unhealthy, and more for the drugs they need to survive. This review must not be another talking shop. We need to see real price cuts and a commitment to a publicly owned pharmaceutical company that puts patients before profits.”
The Scottish and Welsh governments have already said they will conduct their own reviews. The All-Party Parliamentary Group on Diabetes called for an immediate price cap. “The NHS is paying the highest price in the developed world for this medicine,” said group chair Keith Vaz. “That is simply not sustainable.”
For now, the review is expected to report in six months. But for those already feeling the pinch of higher prescription charges and rising taxes, six months is a long time. As one patient from Manchester posted on social media: “My Ozempic costs the NHS 150 quid. In Canada it’s sixty. Why am I paying more? Because we let them get away with it.”
The question now is whether No10’s review will be a genuine effort to rein in the drugmakers or just another nice piece of paperwork. The price of bread may not be controlled, but the price of life-saving medicine should be. The real economy depends on it.
