NHS patients and British businesses to benefit from historic changes to medicines access following pharmaceutical partnership with USA

New partnership accelerates NHS patients' access to new medicines and will see UK benefit from greater life sciences industry investment.

Thousands of NHS patients will get improved access to life-changing treatments, after the government today agreed the full text of its landmark US-UK pharmaceutical partnership. 

UK pharmaceutical exports to the US — worth at least £5 billion a year — will enter the United States completely tariff free, for at least 3 years. This makes the UK the first country in the world to secure 0% tariffs on pharmaceutical exports to the US.  

The partnership also accelerates NHS patients’ access to new medicines. Under the partnership, pharmaceutical companies have stronger incentives to launch innovative treatments in the UK, meaning patients can benefit from new cancer therapies, rare disease treatments, and other breakthrough medicines sooner — without waiting years after they become available elsewhere. 

The partnership is a win for British patients, British businesses and the British economy. First announced in December, the partnership protects a UK pharmaceutical industry that added £28.5 billion to the UK economy in 2025, employs over 50,000 people in highly skilled, well-paid jobs, and exported almost £21 billion in pharmaceutical products worldwide last year.  

Thanks to this partnership, patients right across the NHS will benefit from access to life changing new medicines that they previously would have been denied.