After six months, UK's pharmaceuical price regulation scheme in OFT probe extension

The UK's pharmaceutical industry has expressed "no par-ticular surprise" at the announcement by the government's Office of Fair Trading, after a six-month investigation, that it intends to extend its study of the Pharmaceutical Price Regulation Scheme.

Richard Barker, the Association for the British Pharma-ceutical Industry's director general, insisted that the OFT probe is both ill-timed and based on a contentious reasoning. He said: "although we continue to question the rationale and timing for the study, we do not find it particularly surprising that the OFT should want to examine aspects of the PPRS in greater depth, given its complexity."

PPRS "benefits industry and government"