The NHS is aiming to cut the amount of antibiotics it uses by 15% by 2024 as part of a new drive to tackle the growing scourge of drug-resistant bugs, ministers have pledged. Under what he said was a “radical new payment system” pharmaceutical companies will be paid for their products on a different basis from the existing system. The new system will recognise “how valuable the medicines are to the NHS, rather than just the sheer quantity of antibiotics sold”. “The changes announced are about how we spend that £1bn, not spend more money because we want to use less antibiotics. Hence I’m here talking to pharmaceutical companies about exactly this question.

Source: The Guardian January 24, 2019 18:00 UTC