Following the news that NHS England are launching a trial of the PrEP, anti-HIV drug, I have a number of questions.
How does the NHS decide which drug(s) to prioritise, especially when a month's-worth of some cost huge sums of money (and there are so many different drugs for so many different conditions, nowadays); and how come this trial is going to be able to use generic versions of PrEP, when - unless I am mistaken - it is a new drug and therefore covered by a variety of rights legislation?
On a slightly different tack, how does one discover how much a course and/or month's supply of any drug costs? I, for instance, am on a one a day course of a statin, a statin booster (for want of a better term), 2 blood pressure tablets and a blood thinner - and will be for the rest of my life.
I am still unsure how the Welsh Government can afford to give me all of those free of charge. I can appreciate that one-off prescriptions may be worth giving free, but surely some level of charge - perhaps a pound or two per drug each month would be a more sensible way.
