The UK Government has announced a new UK-US trade deal for medicines, which includes an agreement to apply zero tariffs on UK pharmaceutical exports and preferential rates for MedTech exports.

Alongside this, the Government has also announced the following:

• The Government will invest around 25% more in innovative, safe, and effective treatments.

• An increase in the NICE threshold cost-per-QALY (Quality of Life measure) threshold from £20,000-30,000 to £25,000–35,000 for all innovative medicines appraised by NICE.

• Implementation of a new set of values for assessing health-related quality of life in NICE appraisals.

• The voluntary scheme for branded medicines pricing, access and growth (VPAG) rebate rate that pharmaceuticals are subject to will be capped, meaning that pharmaceutical companies will not repay more than 15% of profits on medicines under this scheme.

The announcement can be read here: Landmark UK-US pharmaceuticals deal to safeguard medicines access and drive vital investment

This tariff agreement and the accompanying changes have the potential to improve access to innovative medicines and treatments for cancer. It has, on occasion, been challenging for new treatments for bladder cancer to progress through the necessary approval processes to become widely available for use within the NHS – if these changes can facilitate this, then ABC UK welcomes this step forward.

We would hope that the Government continues to build on this – and that bladder cancer patients will see the benefits in improved access to badly needed new treatments.

01 December 2025