§ Mrs. Renée Shortasked the Secretary of State for Social Services if he intends to take any action to draw to the attention of doctors the guidelines drawn up by the Royal College of Physicians concerning inducements by some drug firms to pursuade doctors to prescribe their drugs.
§ Mr. NewtonThe Department has had under consideration for some time the issue of revised guidance to the Health Service on the acceptance of gifts and hospitality and has been consulting health authority and professional interests. I have seen the Report of the Royal College of Physicians and I will be considering what reference to this should be made in our guidance.
§ Mr. Dobsonasked the Secretary of State for Social Services (1) how much was committed in each year since its inception to the blood products laboratory at Elstree;
(2) what reductions have been made in the funds originally estimated to be provided for the blood products laboratory at Elstree;
(3) if he will make a statement on the progress of the project to build the blood products laboratory at Elstree;
(4) when it was originally proposed that the United Kingdom should become self-sufficient in the blood product factor VIII;
(5) when Her Majesty's Government were first committed to the blood products laboratory at Elstree; and what was the original estimate of its cost and of its likely completion date;
(6) when the production of factor VIII was estimated to come on stream at Elstree; and when it actually came on stream.
§ Mr. Newton[pursuant to his reply, 1 December 1986 c. 532–33]: The present blood products laboratory commenced manufacture of factor VIII concentrate in 1968. Its production of heat treated factor VIII now meets approximately one third of the England and Wales requirement.
In 1981, before AIDS transmission was associated with blood products, approval in principle was given for the construction of a new blood products laboratory at Elstree. In 1982 more detailed proposals were approved for a laboratory to make England and Wales self-sufficient in blood products. Construction began in May 1983. To enable the building to be completed earlier than traditional methods would allow a "fast track" design and build contract was adopted. When a unique project like this laboratory is built under this method it is extremely difficult to forecast accurately at the outset either the final cost or the completion date since the detailed design is 826W developed as building progresses. Our working assumption at that time was that the cost would be £21.1 million and completion would be at the end of 1985 or early in 1986. We now expect the new BPL to be completed during the first part of 1987. There is no single identifiable reason for the building taking longer and costing more than originally expected other than the complexity of the design required being greater than anticipated. The building will still have been completed two or three years earlier than traditional contracting methods would have allowed.
Progress on the new laboratory has not been impeded by lack of finance; it has been fully funded throughout. Capital expenditure to date has been as follows:
£'000s 1981–82 38 1982–83 276 1983–84 4,977 1984–85 16,648 1985–86 13,663 19861 10,000 1To date. It is not possible for a complex pharmaceutical plant to reach full production immediately but it is expected that after commissioning, limited production will begin later in 1987. On current predictions, substantial supplies of factor VIII will be available during 1988; self sufficiency should follow in 1989.