§ Mr. Phillip Oppenheimasked the Secretary of State for Social Services which drugs on the limited list meet the clinical need also met by the drug Mucodyne in the treatment of bronchial asthma and glue ear.
§ Mr. Kenneth ClarkeThe advice of the chief medical officer's group of independent medical and pharmaceutical experts was that Mucodyne and other similar mucolytic agents were of no established therapeutic value and so should be removed from NHS prescription.
There is a difference of opinion within the medical profession on the value of this group of drugs in the treatment of conditions like bronchial asthma and glue ear. We are making arrangements for the committee which will review the selected list to consider these drugs at its first meeting. I shall announce details of the committee soon.