- New conversation
2/10 A source with knowledge of the trade talks told Dispatches that British trade negotiators have already held six official meetings with their US counterparts to talk about what might be in any trade deal.
3/10 Precise details of what has been discussed has been kept strictly confidential. But a Whitehall source has told us that drug pricing has been on the table in all six meetings.
4/10 The source told Dispatches how US drugs firms have been given direct access to British trade officials.
5/10 Dispatches has been told that as well as meeting with the US government, senior British trade officials have held face-to-face meetings with representatives of US drug firms, none of which have been declared.
6/10 Our source also told us that there have been five secret meetings between senior British civil servants and the US pharma industry. Two in Washington and three in London.
7/10 The most recent being in August after Boris Johnson had become Prime Minister. The source told us that drug “price caps” were discussed in at least one of these meetings.
8/10 We asked the Department for International Trade for a response on what we’ve discovered.
9/10 They said: “The sustainability of the NHS is an absolute priority for the government. We could not agree to any proposals or medicines pricing or access that would put NHS finances at risk or reduce clinician and patient choice.”
10/10 On Dispatches, we discover how the President’s allies and US drug giants want to force the NHS to pay more for US medicines.
WATCH: Trump’s Plan for the NHS. Tonight at 8pm on Channel 4.
Dispatches discovers how Donald Trump’s allies and US drug giants want to force the NHS to pay more for US medicines. Tahir Amin is a British lawyer based in America who is an expert on drug pricing and on previous trade negotiations.