WOW expensive flu jabs !!

[woody2]

1 hour ago, RIchard Britten said:

It would be cheaper for the NHS to nationalise the production of certain "drugs" than paying 10,000% over the odds.

it wouldn't........

[benl]

Surely these figures can't be correct, the BNF lists the prices per individual dosage of Imuvac as £6.59, I wonder if the person preparing this has looked at the wholesale units rather than individual items. I can't see them only ordering 7 flu vaccines and also I'd suspect many of these drugs are used in far greater than single figure quantities. Lookings like a poor response to a badly worded question. 

[Roger Mexico]

22 minutes ago, benl said:

Surely these figures can't be correct, the BNF lists the prices per individual dosage of Imuvac as £6.59, I wonder if the person preparing this has looked at the wholesale units rather than individual items. I can't see them only ordering 7 flu vaccines and also I'd suspect many of these drugs are used in far greater than single figure quantities. Lookings like a poor response to a badly worded question. 

The FoI response gives the BNF Name as "Imuvac_Vac 0.5ml Pfs", which just looks like the standard vaccine, though it gives 5 items not 7.   It's actually described as  "the top 25 most expensive drugs over the last 12 months and how many of each have been issued" (which wasn't what was asked).  I wonder if the 'item' here is batches or '000s or whatever.

[quilp]

It's probably only half the story Roger. Or poor journos again. 

[kevster]

According to NICE, Ustekinumab is £2147 per 45mg vial (April 2009).

The FOI reply gives a price of £1,989 per item... So it looks like at least some of the figures refer to an item being a single dose

[quilp]

Breathtaking... 

[benl]

2 hours ago, Roger Mexico said:

The FoI response gives the BNF Name as "Imuvac_Vac 0.5ml Pfs", which just looks like the standard vaccine, though it gives 5 items not 7.   It's actually described as  "the top 25 most expensive drugs over the last 12 months and how many of each have been issued" (which wasn't what was asked).  I wonder if the 'item' here is batches or '000s or whatever.

Apologies, I cross-read with Humulin R. I think these figures must be per wholesale unit, and the pre-tax price I've seen from this vaccine is around £4.50, so your figure makes more sense. I suspect some of the monoclonal antibodies will be sold in single units because of their price and limited use e.g. Ustekinumab . 

I'd guess these figures also only cover the hospital rather than primary care where cheap drugs prescribed more frequently probably constitute a large proportion of the expense. 

Looks like a communication misfire from DHSC.