Specials Tariff Announced by Department of Health

The Department of Health has announced the introduction of a new tariff for Specials.

For further information go to:

www.nhsbsa.nhs.uk/documents/prescriptionservices/20111011_specials_tariff_q_and_a.pdf

Rosemont and Specials on the Drug tariff

As a leading UK manufacturer of liquid medicines, Rosemont Pharmaceuticals welcomes the drug tariff for Specials and we hope that its introduction will lead to greater transparency and openness about the price paid for Specials.

Rosemont has a firm commitment to the NHS and to ensure an open, honest and transparent pricing policy. This is available to healthcare professionals and is the price that is paid by anyone buying directly from Rosemont.

A tariff is important to help guard against the uncontrolled price escalation of ‘specials’. However, it is essential that quality is not undermined in this process and that best practice standards continue to be maintained and promoted.

Rosemont holds a Manufacturer ‘specials’ licence, but 95% of our medicines are licensed products and the remaining 5% are ‘specials’. Rosemont’s aim is to provide high quality liquid medicines – both licensed and ‘specials’ - for patients who need them. Our philosophy is to develop each product, licensed or ‘special’ with the same attention to detail, the same GMP standards and the same quality assurance standards. We aim to ensure that patients can benefit from quality liquid medicines.

Wherever feasible, Rosemont aims to take unlicensed products through to licensing. Recent examples of Rosemont ‘specials’ which now have a full Marketing Authorisation include liquid simvastatin and liquid warfarin sodium.

‘Specials’ are required in exceptional situations where there is no licensed medicine available. In many cases, ‘specials’ can be life-saving, particularly for children, where there are fewer licensed medicines available for treatment.