The numbers are mind-blowing. In England alone, the NHS spends an average of £52 million on prescription medicines every day.
Over the past decade, the annual drugs bill has soared from £13 billion to £19 billion.
The reasons are complex; people are of course living longer with chronic conditions, ranging from high blood pressure to kidney disease, that need daily tablets to control them.
But our soaring drugs bill also owes much to the development of ground-breaking new medicines for