A recent leaked email from one of the World's pharmaceutical companies calling for "celebration" over the prices hike of cancer drugs. In 2014, the staff at Aspen Pharmacare plotted to destroy pile of life-saving cancer drugs during a price dispute with the Spanish health service.
After purchasing the drugs from British firm GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), the company raised the price 40 times their normal price to sell to Europe.
A pack of busulfan,used to treat leukaemia, rised from £5.20 to £65.22 in England and Wales. The other four drugs, including leukeran and melphalan were also increased 40 times more than the original prices. Melphalan is used by patients of skin and ovarian cancers.
According to an estimation by the European Cancer Congress, the increase in prices of the generic cancer drugs cost NHS in England around £380m a year in prescription drugs dispensed outside of hospitals.
In an email obtained by The Times, an employee wrote;
We’ve signed new reimbursement and price agreement successfully: price increases are basically on line with European target prices (Leukeran, a bit higher!)... Let’s celebrate!
During the bargain, the pharmaceutical giants have threatened to stop selling the cancer treatment drugs unless the health minister agrees to the 4,000 per cent hike in price. And in another email, staff at Aspen talked about destroying the drugs in row.
Aspen Pharmacare is in South Africa, with his headquarter in Dublin. It had bought the five drugs from GlaxoSmithKline in 2009, with a deal worth £273m, and Aspen price hike was due to a loophole that allow drug companies to increase prices of drugs if they are no longer branded the same name.
The Department of Health has said it plans to cut generic cancer drug prices due to their sharp increase in the last 5 years, which has lead to their use being restricted by the NHS.
In 2013, the Italian authorities refused to the 2,100 percent increase in the cancer drug price. And according to The Times investigation, Aspen threatened to stop supplying the drugs to Italy if authorities did not agree to a price increase in 3 months.
According to the Department of Health spokesperson, the government is looking into a new law that will allow the government to “take action against excessive price rises on unbranded generic medicines.”