§ Mrs. Dunwoodyasked the Secretary of State for Social Services whether he will ensure that the decision by Novo Laboratories, which supplies the National Health Service, to withdraw porcine insulin and replace it with a synthesised human insulin at greater cost, will lead to an improvement in patient care commensurate with the additional cost.
§ Mr. Geoffrey FinsbergThere is no barrier to a pharmaceutical company introducing new products in the United Kingdom provided that it satisfies the requirements of the Medicines Act with regard to their safety, quality and efficacy. A company is also free to fix the price at which a new product is introduced to the market, although it then comes within the scope of the controls on overall profitability of the company's dealings in NHS medicines as exercised through the pharmaceutical price regulation scheme. It is for the prescribing doctor to decide whether to prescribe a new product in preference to alternatives. In this he will be guided, among other things, by the information provided from the Department and elsewhere on relative costs.
I understand that, at least for the time being, Novo Laboratories is continuing to supply porcine insulin.