§ Mr. Lesterasked the Secretary of State for Social Services if Her Majesty's Government will take steps to ensure that those Third world countries without regulatory agencies obtain access to drug information from the United Kingdom.
§ Mr. Kenneth ClarkeWe routinely provide information about drugs marketed in the United Kingdom to the World Health Organisation for dissemination to member states. This includes information relating to the granting, suspension and revocation of product licences and summaries of adverse reactions reports received by the Committee on Safety of Medicines. The Department is also willing to provide any additional information we have, on request from third world countries, provided this information is not confidential. Detailed information on drugs marketed in the United Kingdom is also readily available from a number of published sources including the British Pharmacopoeia, the British National Formulary and ABPI Data Sheet Compendium.
§ Mr. Lesterasked the Secretary of State for Social Services what action Her Majesty's Government plan to take to improve the marketing of pharmaceuticals to the Third world, especially the pricing and sales of inessential drugs.
§ Mr. Kenneth ClarkeThe British Government have no powers to control the pricing or sales of medicines in other countries. These are matters for the countries concerned. The International Federation of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers' Associations has a code of marketing practices to which its member associations, which include many from Third world countries, have declared they will conform.
Guidelines for developing countries to help them to prepare lists of essential drugs and to formulate national 100W and cost effective import policies have been prepared under the World Health Organisation's action programme, which Her Majesty's Government fully support.
§ Mr. Lesterasked the Secretary of State for Social Services what was the value of British exports of finished and intermediate generic drugs to the Third world in each of the last five years; and if he will express the figures as a percentage of sales of brand name products.
§ Mr. Kenneth ClarkeThe information is not available in the form requested. The Government only compile detailed information about the leading markets for pharmaceutical exports which do not include many countries which could be described as Third world countries on most definitions. Our information for those markets does not distinguish between types of pharmaceuticals.