Over at CiF we get a description of exactly how drug prices are in fact calculated for the NHS:

For more than 50 years the National Health Service has paid an
excessive amount for (brand name) medicines because drug prices were
determined through a perverse and secretive scheme designed primarily
to sponsor drug companies rather than support patient wellbeing. The
Pharmaceutical Price Regulation Scheme, which began life in 1956 as the
Voluntary Price Regulation Scheme, and is unique the world over, has
passed its sell-by date and no longer offers a politically acceptable
form of governance.

You mean 1950’s style central planning doesn’t work? That’s something of a surprise isn’t it?