§ Mrs. Dunwoodyasked the Secretary of State for Social Services(1) whether he will take steps to improve the price scrutinies of the pharmaceutical price regulation scheme to seek to ensure that it becomes possible to assess the overall effect of his Departments action to reduce or reject price increases proposed by manufacturers;
(2) if he will set up an investigation into the prices charged for drugs sold in the United Kingdom to ascertain the specific and overall variations in these prices in relation to the prices at which the same drugs are sold abroad.
§ Mr. Geoffrey FinsbergThere are many reasons why there are differences between the prices of drugs in the United Kingdom and those of the same drugs sold abroad. These included currency fluctuations, national price control systems and differing purchasing power parities. The effect is that some drugs are more expensive in the United Kingdom than abroad and some are cheaper. In the United Kingdom the prices of medicines for the National Health Service are controlled under the pharmaceutical price regulation scheme, which as I announced on 27 January—[Vol. 35, c. 1153]—is to be reviewed.
§ Mrs. Dunwoodyasked the Secretary of State for Social Services (1) what has been the expenditure and the staff numbers involved in the running of the pharmaceutical price regulation scheme for each year since its creation;
(2) what has been the expenditure at constant prices of Government drug price control schemes for each financial year since 1968–69.
§ Mr. Geoffrey FinsbergOver the period of the present pharmaceutical price regulation scheme, 1978 to date, the equivalent of about 12 staff have been engaged full time in running the scheme. The present cost, including oncosts, is about £286,000 per annum.