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THE UK DRUG INDUSTRY
Page 55
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Pharmaceuticals are produced by the private sector but, unlike many other British industries, this business has the full clout of the government behind it. The Pharmaceutical Industry Competitiveness Task Force, a joint government/ Industry group, was formed to identify ways to retain the UK's strong pharmaceutical infrastructure.
This industry's strong, and it's expanding. Andrew Curl, deputy director general at the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry, says: "In terms of industry position we (the UK) are second only to the United States. Climate control is important to us; there are products which have taken 10 to 12 years and £0.5bn to develop, so these are valuable materials. There is a strong scientific base in this country. In fact, 30% of all pharmaceutical research and development is done In Britain. The industry employs, directly and indirectly, 250,000 people."
The German industry, he reports, is in decline.
The NHS has a budget of over £54bn, and last year It spent £7bn on drugs. You need CVs to deliver all these products. HGVs and vans are also needed to drop raw materials at factories, and pharmaceuticals to private hospitals, GPs' surgeries and REICs.
Pharmaceutical factories are located in, among other places, Manchester, Worthing, Irvine, Berkshire and Buckinghamshire. Unlike the US, where drug companies can charge what they like for pharmaceuticals, prices are capped by the government in the UK. British medicine firms are rewarded with "adequate" profit margins, Curl says.
Inevitably, then, hauliers aren't going to be showered with cash. Transport rates are higher than in general haulage, as Eames points out, but they are not sky-high.
Healthcare Logistics specialises In ordering, processing, and delivering pharmaceuticals to the end of the supply chain, most notably hospitals and GPs' surgeries. Fall
reports that you need a large-scale operation in this particular market. "The rates are highly competitive and we could not afford to work an them unless we had such a high market share," he asserts.
Curl predicts that the British pharmaceutical sector is here to stay. He says: "The future looks bright; we have a government that understands the needs of the industry. We have to make sure that the UK remains an attractive place to manufacture pharmaceuticals."
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