Category A changes

Further to the consultation on reimbursement reforms (consultation response can be found here: Community pharmacy drug reimbursement reform: consultation response - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk) and further consultation with Community Pharmacy England (CPE), this is advance notice for contractors that from 1 April 2024, the way that Category A reimbursement prices are set, will transition over six quarters following a variable weighting between ‘old arrangements’ and ‘new arrangements’ as outlined in Table 1.

Under the ‘new arrangements’, the reimbursement prices will be set using information from suppliers obtained under the Health Service Products (Provision and Disclosure of Information) Regulations 2018. All available pack sizes of licensed generic medicines will be considered. Under the ‘old arrangements’ the reimbursement prices will be set as the weighted average of the list prices of the following suppliers: A A H Pharmaceuticals Ltd, Alliance Healthcare (Distribution) Ltd, Teva UK Ltd and Accord-UK Ltd on or before the 8th of the month, two months before the first month of the quarter being reimbursed. In the weighted formula, A A H Pharmaceuticals Ltd and Alliance Healthcare (Distribution) Ltd prices have a weighting of two, the prices from the other suppliers have a weighting of one.

Note that during this transition period there will be some products in Category A which have a different price setting mechanism applied compared to that set in Table 1.