By bizn_fun 
Business and Trade Secretary Peter Kyle said the deal “guarantees that UK pharmaceutical exports – worth at least £5bn a year – will enter the US tariff free, protecting jobs, boosting investment and paving the way for the UK to become a global hub for life sciences.”
The UK exported £11.1bn worth of medicines to the US in the 12 months to the end of September, making up 17.4% of all goods exports in that period, according to the Department for Business and Trade.
Pharmaceuticals were not included in the wave of tariffs US President Donald Trump had announced earlier this year.
But he has repeatedly threatened to raise tariffs on medicines, citing concerns about America’s reliance on medicines made overseas and a desire to increase manufacturing in the US.
He has also argued that US consumers effectively subsidise medicines for other developed countries by paying premium prices for those drugs and pushed for other countries to pay more.
Under the terms set out on Monday, the UK will increase the price threshold, at which it deems new treatments to be too expensive, by 25%.
The UK will also increase the overall amount the NHS spends on medicines, with a target to increase that spending from 0.3% of GDP to 0.6% of GDP over the next 10 years.
The amount drug companies must pay back to the NHS to ensure the health system does not overspend its allocated budget will be capped at 15% – last year, drug companies had to pay back more than 20%.
In exchange, UK medicine exports will be protected from tariff increases for the next three years.
White House spokesman Kush Desai said the agreement with the UK was a “historic step towards ensuring that other developed countries finally pay their fair share”.