PENICILLIN (MANUFACTURE) (Hansard, 29 November 1944)

§ Mr. George Griffiths (Hemsworth)
want to raise a question which is not in the King's Speech unless I read it into the King's Speech. I propose drawing attention to the sentence in the King's Speech which reads thus: Progress will be made in fulfilling the urgent tasks of providing additional"—

§ Mr. Speaker
I thought I told the hon. Gentleman that he could not debate the King's Speech on the Adjournment. There are certain matters which I understood he wanted to debate, but we cannot have such a Debate on the King's Speech.

§ Mr. Griffiths
I will leave out the King's Speech but I thought that that was the way I was going to get in my point. I want to raise two questions. The first is the manufacture of penicillin in this country and the agreement of the Government with the United States Government. Penicillin is a discovery by a Britisher and it is very closely guarded. Priorities are given to five or six companies. What disturbs me and some of my friends is that penicillin is a life-saving discovery and is being handled differently from the way insulin was handled. When insulin as discovered some 25 years ago, it was immediately given to the world, although it was very costly, but the cost was brought down when the production increased. When insulin was first discovered no working-man in the country could afford to buy it. It was 25s. for a bottle no larger than my finger. The production of insulin in great quantities had the effect of bringing down the price. Penicillin is something similar to insulin but instead of the British Government taking over the control of the manufacture of penicillin they have handed it over practically entirely to the United States, and only five per cent. is manufactured in this country. Penicillin is a necessity. I find that we have an agreement with the United States that the first priorities for it must be the Service men. That has been agreed by both nations. [An HON. MEMBER: "Hear, hear."] I hear somebody saying "Hear, hear" to it. I agree that the Forces should have pencillin first, but I say that when there 60 is a scarcity, or a supposed scarcity, of penicillin, I think the civilians of Britain should have it before German prisoners.
I will leave that for a moment for my next point, which is that in the West Riding County Council laboratory at the present time there is a young Czechoslovakian doctor whose name is Dr. Berger. Through the process of time he has been enabled to manufacture pure penicillin in the West Riding laboratory and is only losing 5 per cent. in the process of manufacture, and even then he is able to recoup the 5 per cent. Yet the British manufacturers of penicillin to-day are losing, in the process of perfecting it, up to 45 per cent. We have asked the Minister of Supply to grant facilities for the laboratory to be extended, because the West Riding Council themselves cannot do this. We have asked for further facilities to be given for the manufacture of penicillin, but the Ministry say, "No, you can go on manufacturing penicillin in your way, but you shall not supply the civilian population with penicillin, no matter how much they need it, unless they are in your institutions in the West Riding County Council." That is an abomination. We say that, when penicillin is made, the Minister should allow it to be given not only to patients in institutions in the West Riding but to anybody in the West Riding or any other part of the country, where medical officers say that it is necessary.
I am sorry that the Minister of Supply is not here because this is my only chance of raising this matter, and I want to give two cases which have arisen in the West Riding. There was a lady in Conisbrugh who was on the verge of going over to the other side and whose doctor said that penicillin was the only thing which could save her. The county council took it into their own hands and gave this woman—a civilian—penicillin. Her chart showed that she was about to die, but three days after she was given penicillin, the chart showed that she was normal and, in 14 days, this woman was doing her own housework. There was a little girl in Doncaster Hospital only a fortnight ago to whom penicillin was given as the only cure, and who is now out of hospital.

§ Sir Granville Gibson (Pudsey and Otley)
On a point of Order. Is it not 61 customary, Mr. Speaker, in the event of a Debate on the Adjournment, that there should be a Minister to reply?

§ Mr. Speaker
That is not necessary. An hon. Member who talks on the Adjournment is responsible for getting the Minister here. It is no part of our procedure that the Minister must be present; it is the responsibility of the hon. Member who is talking on the Adjournment.

§ Mr. G. Griffiths
I have not be able to get the Minister here, but there are other Ministers on the Treasury Bench who, no doubt, will convey to the Minister of Supply what I have been saying, although I expect that that Minister will say that what I have said is all bunkum. I asked the Minister of Supply to go with me to the penicillin laboratory at Wakefield, and he said he had not the time. I then asked him to send one of his chief assistants and he said that he, also, was too busy. The doctors concerned in this case went to the Ministry of Supply and there had a very disappointing interview. There are five firms in the British Isles, who have a monopoly for the making of this penicillin. When I put a Question on this matter some time ago, another hon. Member said that other people were making penicillin. But that Member did not quite understand. The penicillin they are making in Bradford and Halifax is the raw stuff. It can only be rubbed on the skin; if it were injected into the system a person would die in a very short time. So that kind of penicillin is not equal to the quality of the penicillin which is made in the laboratory at Wakefield.
It is stated that the reason why these five firms do not want to divulge what they are doing is because we do not want to let the Germans know about it. That 62 is a paltry excuse. In 1941 a Research Corporation was formed, including Boots, May & Baker, the Wellcombe Foundation, the Glaxo Laboratories, I.C.I., and Kemball, Bishop, Ltd., to inquire into penicillin production. These firms are trying out different processes so that they can make penicillin more effective. I challenge the Minister of Supply to bring forward a penicillin which is better than that which is being produced in the West Riding laboratory. Is it not time that this monopoly was finished and that everybody in the country who needed it should be able to have penicillin in the same way that in 1922 everybody who needed insulin had the opportunity of getting it? I speak forcibly on this question because I know the good that insulin has done to hundreds of thousands of people, and if penicillin can do anything similar to that there should be no covering up.
I should like to say a word now about tuberculosis. The Minister of Health some two years ago gave an instruction that men and women who had tuberculosis in its early stages, and were prepared to give up work and undergo treatment, could get a maintenance allowance about equal to their wages. Large numbers of people ceased work and went into institutions. When the doctors certified that the disease had reached the serious stage, the Ministry knocked the maintenance off altogether, and that very fact signed the death certificate of these people. I ask the Minister of Health, once he has given anyone a maintenance grant, not to take it off, because it breaks their heart. It tells them that they are worse than ever and that there is no hope for them.