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Page last updated at 07:13 GMT, Monday, 2 July 2012 08:13 UK

Should NHS spend more on new drugs?

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The NHS is not spending enough on new drugs, according to the drugs industry.

Stephen Whitehead, chief executive of the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry, says the UK has the "lowest medicine prices in Europe but the slowest adoption of new medicines into the NHS".

Roy Lilley, an independent health policy analyst, told the Today programme that the reason the drugs bill is coming down is because the NHS has "gone out of its way to bring it down".

"It's a question of what is affordable," he explains, "the money has to be ploughed back into patient services."


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