§ Mr. Michael MorrisTo ask the Secretary of State for Health what is the impact on(a) profitability of pharmaceutical companies supplying medicines to the national health service and (b) the national health service drugs bill of the pharmaceutical price regulation scheme.
§ Mrs. Virginia BottomleyThe pharmaceutical price regulation scheme seeks to strike a balance between securing the supply of drugs to the national health service at an acceptable cost to the taxpayer and offering pharmaceutical companies a reasonable level of profitability on their NHS sales.
It is not possible to estimate the impact of the PPRS on companies' profitability or the NHS drugs bill since that would depend on what the level of drug prices might be or what other expenditure controls might exist in the absence of the agreement.