§ Mr. Pavittasked the Secretary of State for Social Services (1) if he will inquire into the price-fixing arrangements previously revealed between companies selling broad-spectrum antibiotics which led to the claim of $25,000,000 in the United States of America, details of which have been sent to him, where this concerned the companies or parent companies supplying the National Health Service;
288W(2) if, in the light of the information sent to him by the hon. Member for Willesden, West, he will take action following his review of the Voluntary Price Regulation Scheme to reduce the cost to the National Health Service of broad-spectrum antibiotics.
§ Sir K. JosephI am satisfied that the arrangements of the Voluntary Price Regulation Scheme and the hospital contracts provide a proper basis for ensuring that the prices of these drugs to the National Health Service are reasonable. In fact, there have been very substantial price reductions in the main broad-spectrum antibiotics over the past 10 to 12 years. The proceedings in the United States of America to which the hon. Member refers are not directly relevant to the prices of drugs in this country.
§ Mr. Laurie Pavittasked the Secretary of State for Social Services, why the National Health Service has not saved approximately 60 per cent. of its costs in supplying Terramycin by substituting one or other of the ovytetracyclines now produced by British drug companies.
§ Sir K. JosephBecause they are not necessarily exact therapeutic equivalents and because it is a fundamental principle of the Health Service that a doctor is free to prescribe any drug he considers necessary for his patient. The attention of doctors has been drawn to the difference in price and there has in fact over the past few years been a very substantial decline in the prescribing of Terramycin in the National Health Service.