§ Sir W. BULLasked the Minister of Labour, as representing the Ministry of Health, whether he is aware that the Council of Medical Research is throwing obstacles in the way of the general production of a remedy for diabetes known as Insulin; if, seeing that our knowledge of the remedy has long passed the experimental stage, he can arrange that the manufacture should be left to private enterprise; and whether he is aware that a system of licences granted by the Council of Medical Research to authorised persons would afford ample protection to the public and make the remedy available much sooner than by keeping it a Government monopoly?
§ Sir M. BARLOWThe answer to the first part of the question is in the negative. So far from creating obstacles, the Medical Research Council are doing everything in their power to accelerate the production and use of Insulin in the 2969W treatment of diabetes. As regards the second part of the question, my right hon. Friend is under a misapprehension. His assertion that the remedy has passed the experimental stage is not in accord with the experience of other countries or the best scientific opinion here. There is no question of any Government monopoly, and the suggestion which he makes as to manufacture is on the lines which the Medical Research Council have been, in fact, diligently pursuing for some time past.