Dominic Raab has admitted the US will be able to ramp up the cost of drugs bought by the NHS after Brexit, but insisted the prospect is “hugely unlikely”.
Asked if Washington would be free to “jack up prices”, the Foreign Secretary replied: “The Americans will take their decisions.”
He then claimed: “I think it’s hugely unlikely, why would they do that?” – prompting Sky News interviewer Adam Boulton to say: “To get more money that’s why.”
The comments come after documents released by Labour revealed that drug pricing has been discussed by US and UK negotiators in exploratory talks.
Officials from the department for international trade officials had “positive bilaterals” and met with PhRma, the US pharmaceutical lobbing group, to discuss priorities for a future trade deal.
Mr Raab again insisted the NHS would not be “on the table for negotiations” in the US-UK trade deal Boris Johnson is desperate to secure after leaving the EU.
The government would “walk away” rather than sign up to an agreement that put the health service at risk, he said.
However, the US has demanded “full market access” in the NHS and is known to want to end the ability of Nice, which regulates medicine prices in the UK, to block drugs it does not consider value for money.
The Trump administration also wants to change patent law, potentially paving the way for US drug firms to demand higher prices for their medicines and over a longer period of time.
In his first comments since arriving in UK for the Nato summit, the US president tried to dismiss his interest in the NHS, saying: “I have nothing to do with it. Never even thought about it, honestly.”
However, it was quickly pointed out that Mr Trump himself said, in 2017: “When you deal in trade, everything is on the table – so the NHS or anything else.”
Jonathan Ashworth, Labour’s health spokesman, seized on the Foreign Secretary’s comments, saying: “Dominic Raab has finally admitted what we all know – Boris Johnson is opening the door to a Trump trade deal that will force our NHS medicines bill through the roof.”
Mr Raab suggested it would not be in the US’s interests to hike prices if “you reduce the amount, the volume of purchases”.
And he said: “The key point in this is that we will do the right thing by the patients the consumers in this country.”