§ 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 432W of new medicines introduced in the past five years; and what comparable figures are available for Germany, France, Holland and Belgium.
§ Dr. Mawhinney[pursuant to his reply, 15 December 1992, c. 180–81]: I regret that some of the figures quoted in the previous reply may have been misleading, because they included expenditure on medical devices as well as on medicines. To clarify the position, the figures, under the definition of new medicines stated before, are as follows.
433WFor England only, the net ingredient cost of NHS drugs dispensed by chemists grew by £207 million in 1991. Of that growth, £143 million, or 69 per cent., was spent on new medicines introduced in the previous five years.