§ Mr. RentonTo ask the Secretary of State for Health, (1) pursuant to her answer of 20 January,Official Report, column 321, what evidence she possesses that the selected list scheme continues to exert a downward pressure on the national health service drugs bill; and in what year it was obtained;
(2) pursuant to her answer of 20 January, Official Report, column 321, what are the grounds for her belief that measures under the selected list scheme continue to exert a downward pressure on the drugs bill.
§ Dr. MawhinneyThe Advisory Committee on National Health Service drugs is required to ensure that drugs to meet all real clinical needs in the specified categories can be provided as economically as possible under the NHS. In considering whether to recommend that a particular product should not be prescribed under the NHS, the committee will have regard both to its cost and to the cost of alternative products which are likely to be prescribed in its place. This ensures that the net effect of the committee's recommendations will be to exert a continuing downward pressure on the NHS drugs bill.