§ Mrs. Dunwoodyasked the Secretary of State for Social Services if he will estimate the savings to the National Health Service if generic drugs were prescribed whenever a suitable generic drug could replace a particular branded drug.
§ Mr. Kenneth ClarkeIf all prescriptions in England in 1981 had been written and dispensed using generic names whenever possible, the saving to the NHS would have been £23 million. Prices for generic drugs fell during 1982 and although figures are not yet available, the potential saving would now be higher.
This figure of £23 million does not represent the actual saving that would be achieved, because manufacturers do not set the prices of individual drugs in isolation. They adopt a pricing policy for their entire range and if sales of a particular branded product declined, there could well be an increase in the price of some other drug for which there was no generic equivalent.