§ 42. Mr. Liptonasked the Secretary of State for Social Services how many proprietary drugs ruled by the United States Food and Drug Administration to be lacking evidence of effectiveness are still on sale in the United Kingdom; and what is the cost to the National Health Service of these drugs.
§ Dr. OwenThe Food and Drugs Administration classification cannot be directly applied to products on the British market in view of differences in nomenclature, composition and claims.
A search made in 1970, when the FDA list was published showed that 90 products available here were similar to ones on the list. The cost to the National Health Service of supplying these drugs through chemists was approximately £2,700,000 during 1973. Figures for the cost of supply to hospitals are not available. Of the 90, there are 71 which are combinations of drugs where the efficacy of the constituents was not 86W questioned by the FDA but where specific evidence of the usefulness of the particular combination was lacking. The remaining 19 were rated as inefficacious in themselves; the total cost of supplying these 19 through chemists during the same period was £68,000.
At the time the list appeared in 1970, consideration of certain products included in the FDA review had not been completed. In some of these cases the FDA has announced its intention of classifying such products as inefficacious, but a final ruling has not yet been made. These products have not been included in the above figures.