Discounted prices and prescribing costs for SSRIs

<p>Prescribing costs account for about ten per cent of the NHS budget and are often the most visible aspect of specific courses of treatment.

<p><p><p>Pharmaceutical companies may adopt aggressive pricing strategies to obtain initial prescriptions, especially where patients<p><p>are likely to remain on drug therapy for a substantial period of time. This can involve the offering of discounted prices to certain sectors e.g. hospitals to persuade them to initiate therapy using drugs that must then be paid for by the primary care sector at full price.

<p><p><p>The example of antidepressants and particularly the SSRIs is used to show that such aggressive pricing strategies can result in an increased burden on the NHS, in terms of prescribing costs, even where the prescribing cost to the hospital sector is reduced substantially.