Price Concessions - why are the excess costs lower in November than October 2017?

We’ve taken a quick look at the data to see why, despite the number of price concession lines have increased to 91 in November, the estimated total excess cost has reduced. (Reminder - we’ve used September prescribing data to estimate the effects, as that’s the latest data available).

The full table is below, but here are some highlights:

1. Some of the price concessions have reduced since October. For example, olanzapine 10mg tabs have dropped considerably, from £62/box to under £27/box - although the tariff price has increased from just over £1/box at the beginning of the year. The same applies for gabapentin and amlodipine 10mg tablets.
2. Some items, such as pramiprexole 88mcg tablets have been removed as a price concession, although once again the tariff price has increased significantly.
3. Although there are eight new chemicals listed in price concessions, these haven’t a huge impact: topiramate being the largest new cost pressure at around half a million pounds estimated in November.

As always, you can find our Drug Tariff viewer at www.openprescribing.net/tariff. We’d love to know what you think about the work we’re doing, or anything to do with the OpenPrescribing tool. Please let us know on Twitter, our Facebook page, or via email at feedback@openprescribing.net.

Full list of changes by chemical substance