The Department of Health and Social Care has agreed to increase the July concession price for atorvastatin from £3.45 to £3.91, Community Pharmacy England has said.

The negotiator said it had secured the “price improvement” following “ongoing concerns” from pharmacies that they were not able to buy atorvastatin at the original price of £3.45 – which has been imposed by the DHSC when the two parties failed to reach agreement. There have been an “exceptionally high number” of reports around sourcing the drug, it added.

“This revised price is high enough to cover the costs being paid by the majority of contractors who reported to us,” CPE said yesterday (August 9). It had previously said the concession prices originally granted for atorvastatin 10mg an 40mg tablets were high enough to cover costs.

However, the DHSC did not agree to price increases for two other lines requested by CPE, claiming that its own data “was not compatible with revising these prices”.

“As well as pushing back on individual lines we are also challenging DHSC on the accuracy and quality of the data used to determine concessionary prices,” said CPE.

It added: “While the concessions system is designed to help alleviate the impact of supply or pricing issues on businesses, medicines supply instability remains one of the most serious issue affecting pharmacy businesses, teams and their patients.”