§ Mr. Pavittasked the Secretary of State for Social Services if she will keep a register in the section of her Department responsible for the voluntary price regulation scheme for medicines used by the National Health Service containing the names of all medical representatives employed to call on doctors together with other relevant information as a means of assessing the overall cost to the taxpayer of this form of sales promotion.
§ Dr. OwenThe annual financial return which all major pharmaceutical companies submit contains a schedule showing the cost breakdown of the various sales promotion and information activities, and representatives are separately specified in this schedule. We therefore know what each company spends on representatives. Maintaining a nominal roll of all medical representatives, would involve substantial bureaucratic effort, and not add much to our existing information.