§ Mr. DalyellTo ask the Secretary of State for Health, pursuant to her answer of 26 November,Official Report, column 810, what assessment she has made as part of her Department's review of the measures being taken throughout Europe to limit medicine bills of the current spend per head on medicines in European countries; and if she will give the figure for the United Kingdom and the corresponding figures for Germany, Italy, France, Belgium and Holland.
§ Dr. MawhinneyThe Department monitors the range of measures being taken in all countries to limit spending on180W medicines and notes the different factors in each country which influence levels of spending. These include countries' different policies on the range of drugs for which reimbursement of cost is available, making simple per capita comparisons potentially misleading.
The latest year for which figures are available for all the countries mentioned is 1989.
In that year, spending on drugs per capita was converted into sterling on the basis of purchasing power parity:
£ United Kingdom 47 Germany 99 Italy 79 France 83 Belgium 59 Netherlands 42
§ Mr. DalyellTo ask the Secretary of State for Health, pursuant to her answer of 26 November,Official Report, column 810, what assessment she has made as part of her Department's review of the measures being taken throughout Europe to limit medicine bills of the proportion of the growth in national health service spending on medicines in 1991, which was due to the cost of new medicines introduced in the past five years; and what comparable figures are available for Germany, France, Holland and Belgium.
§ Dr. Mawhinney"New medicines" include both those based on active substances being introduced to the market for the first time and new presentations of medicines based on active substances which may have been introduced earlier. Under this definition, figures for England only, show that the net ingredient cost of national health service drugs dispensed by chemists grew by £207 million in 1991. Of that growth, £150 million, or 72 per cent. was spent on new medicines introduced in the previous five years.
No comparable figures are available for the other countries.