§ Mr. Haynesasked the Secretary of State for Social Services (1) what was the global sum spent by the pharmaceutical industry on promoting prescription only medicines to the National Health Service as a whole and to general practitioners for the last year for which figures are available; and by how much this exceeded the global target for the industry as a whole set by his Department;
(2) from the latest annual financial returns of pharmaceutical companies, what is the proportion of actual expenditure as a percentage of total promotional expenditure made on representatives promoting products.
§ Mr. HayhoeIn 1983, the latest year for which information is readily available, companies submitting annual financial returns spent £169 million on promoting the sales of medicines to the National Health Service, of which the cost of representatives was about 44 per cent. This exceeded target by £30 million, which was treated as notional profit for the purposes of the pharmaceutical price regulations scheme. Separate figures for expenditure on promotion to general practitioners are not available.