Drugs company is under investigation following allegations of overcharging

A drugs company operating in Wakefield has been referred to anti-fraud investigators, after it was found to have overcharged the taxpayer.

Activities by the firm, whose identity is not publicly known, were discussed by Wakefield Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) last September after “concerns” were raised about how much they were charging for a type of medication at a pharmacy in the district.

The revelations have been made in documented minutes for the CCG’s audit committee meeting.

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The papers say that after the issue was raised, local health bosses then spoke to a CCG in another part of the UK, where the company also had business.

They said that they had been overcharged for some prescriptions.

The information was passed onto the NHS Counter Fraud Authority, which is now investigating.

Local NHS bodies repay pharmacies for the cost of some medication at a current fixed price of £9.

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The prescriptions for which this applies are listed on what’s known as The Drugs Tariff.

However, some medicines, known as NP8 drugs, are not subject to the same fixed price. Pharmaceutical companies can also ask to be compensated for these, but are not supposed to charge the NHS for any more than the cost of prescribing them.

The papers revealed it was NP8 medicines that were at the centre of the investigation.

The issue of NHS overcharging has been well documented by the national media previously.