§ Mr. Meacherasked the Secretary of State for Social Services what further proposals he has to control transfer pricing in the case of drugs.
§ Sir K. JosephThe transfer prices of medicines sold by foreign companies to their subsidiaries in the United Kingdom are not controlled by me. They are part of the costs to be set against the sales of the subsidiaries to the National Health Service. Though I cannot compel the supply of information from abroad I have sufficient information from the companies concerned and from my general intelligence about the pharmaceutical industry to make reasonable assessments of the profits contained in the transfer prices, which I take into account when considering the overall profitability of the companies' operations in this country.