HC Deb 13 April 1981 vol 3 cc53-4W
Mr. Eldon Griffiths

asked the Secretary of State for Social Services if he will publish in the Official Report the conclusions of his Department's working party under the chairmanship of Professor Grahame-Smith on the subject of medicine testing procedures.

Dr. Vaughan

The licensing authority's proposals, based on the report of a working party of the Committee on Safety of Medicines chaired by Professor Grahame-Smith, were contained in a consultation letter dated 21 January 1981, a copy of which is in the Library of the House. The recommendations as to the data required before clinical testing of a new drug, are set out in annex A to that letter.

Mr. Eldon Griffiths

asked the Secretary of State for Social Services what evidence he has that excessively detailed regulations by the Committee on Safety of Medicines have led pharmaceutical companies to test new drugs abroad or to place less investment on new plant and processes in the United Kingdom.

Dr. Vaughan

Apart from representations by the industry, evidence that the testing of new drugs abroad has increased is derived from applications for product licences for new drugs and such published statements as an account in theJournal of the Royal Society of Medicine, May 1980, of a meeting of the Medico-Pharmaceutical Forum where it was stated that over 80 per cent. of new drugs discovered in the United Kingdom went overseas for clinical testing, with a tendency for research and production to follow.

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