CMA clarifies collaboration on combination therapies to accelerate patient access to essential treatments

The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) today issued a statement clarifying that certain types of agreements between competing pharmaceutical companies working on ‘combination therapies’ will not be prioritized for research – making it easier for pharmaceutical companies to work together to deliver essential to develop treatments for use in NS. The CMA’s statement comes in response to concerns that the CMA could intervene to stop these types of collaborations under competition law.

Combination therapies combine two or more individual drugs into one treatment and have become increasingly important for the treatment of a range of serious conditions, most commonly cancer. They can produce better health outcomes than individual medications because, in combination, these medications can target the disease more effectively.

These combination therapies can only be approved for use on the NHS if they are shown to be ‘cost-effective’. The Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry (ABPI) told the CMA that since 2017, half of combination therapies for cancer treatments with branded medicines submitted for review to the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) have withdrawn from the list . fully processed or were not assessed as cost-effective.

In some cases, a combination will only be ‘cost-effective’ and commercially viable if there is some form of collaboration between pharmaceutical companies, and companies have expressed concerns that such collaboration could be investigated by the CMA. That’s why the CMA is playing its role in clarifying where and how competing drug manufacturers can work together to give them a better chance of meeting the cost-effectiveness threshold and bringing these essential medicines to market.

The CMA has worked closely with the ABPI, NHS England (NHSE) and NICE to make this public statement, and has worked with relevant bodies in all four countries of Great Britain to ensure that patients can benefit where they are also located. By meeting the conditions set out in the CMA’s statement, pharmaceutical companies will be able to enter into a commercial agreement with the comfort that the CMA will not prioritize this conduct in investigations. However, the information exchanged between pharmaceutical companies must be limited to what is strictly necessary to reach a commercial agreement, and pharmaceutical companies cannot share the confidential price of their individual medicines.

Ann Pope, CMA Senior Director of Antitrust, said:

Tens of thousands of NHS patients are missing out on innovative combination therapies. Competing pharmaceutical companies’ concerns that they will fall foul of competition law if they work together are not the only reason why more of these therapies are unavailable to NHS patients, but the CMA is playing its role in explaining how companies can negotiation and avoidance are explored.

Our statement is intended to provide clarity and comfort to businesses following the rules, and ultimately aims to help more people access essential treatments. It is not a ‘free pass’ and any companies engaging in anti-competitive behavior will be thoroughly investigated by the CMA.”

Fiona Bride, Director of Medicines Value & Access at NHS England, said:

NHS patients are already benefiting from access to combination cancer therapies, but it is clear that industry concerns over competition law could act as a barrier to a wider range of combination treatments reaching patients who could benefit.

This crucial step by the CMA now provides a clear position that, in specific circumstances, commercial deals involving multiple medicines approved by different companies can be struck so that NHS patients can benefit from the latest combination therapies for a range of conditions at a fair price . taxpayers.”

Helen Knight, Director of Medicines Evaluation at NICE, said:

NICE is seeing an increasing number of combination therapies coming through its health technology assessment pipeline, so it was important for us to support the CMA in issuing this statement.

We believe that if companies can work together in these very specific circumstances, the opportunity for these therapies to progress through NICE evaluation will increase. This has the potential to get better treatments to patients faster.”

As well as the benefits to patients that come from having more combination therapies available on the NHS, there are also wider benefits for growth and innovation in the pharmaceutical sector. More companies should have the confidence to invest in and bring combination therapies to market, ultimately delivering better value for money to the NHS. These targets align with the CMA’s annual plan for 2023 to 2024, which puts people, businesses and the UK economy at the heart of its work.