UK-US Trade Deal May Cause 229,000 Excess NHS Deaths

A new analysis finds that the pharmaceutical terms buried in last December's UK-US trade deal will force the NHS to spend an additional £45bn on medicines, diverting funds from essential services and causing an estimated 229,000 avoidable deaths in England. The deal was negotiated to shield British drug exports from US tariffs, but the price tag is now attracting serious political scrutiny. The figure comes from independent modelling of the agreement's impact on NHS procurement budgets.