Thread by @SamuelMarcLowe

Trump is here, so inevitably I have written a piece on that ethereal potential future UK-US trade deal everyone likes to talk about.

newstatesman.com/politics/uk/20…

On the NHS and healthcare I think it is important to specific about what the US asks might be.

newstatesman.com/politics/uk/20…

To add a little more substance, the specific ambitions for the US pharmaceuticals lobby can be found here: phrma.org/policy-paper/p…

Note, trade is never as sexy as people try and make out. The main asks are to do with process, transparency and assessment.

In this case, the main ask seems to be for NICE to be more open to broader criteria when it comes to assessing the value of medicines.

For an ideas as to what these asks look like when written into an FTA text, here is the relevant text of the US-Korea agreement (h/t/ @hhesterm):

ustr.gov/sites/default/…

And while provisions on procurement of pharmaceutical products didn't make its way into the text of US-Australia agreement, related provisions did enter a side-letter, here:

ustr.gov/sites/default/…