UK Govt Responds To NHS Drugs Budget Report

The UK government has responded formally to the report of the House of Commons All-Party Health Select Committee on the National Health Service drugs budget (Marketletter July 25). Health Minister Gerry Malone said he particularly welcomed the Committee's "careful examination of the Selected List, which has been the target of much ill-informed criticism, and its support for the principle which underlies the scheme, that drugs which are ineffective or which are more expensive than other equally effective drugs should not be prescribed."

On the report's call for a National Prescribing List, he said that leading up to the review of the Pharmaceutical Price Regulation Scheme, due before 1998, the government will consider a range of options including the replacement of the Selected List Scheme with a positive list along the lines recommended by the Committee. However, he added, "before adopting such a course we would need to be absolutely confident that patients would continue to receive all the medicines they need."

Responding to the Minister's comments, the director-general of the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry, Trevor Jones, said the ABPI will "readily" work with the government on the PPRS review, "confident that it remains the cornerstone of our effective relationship with the government." A National Prescribing List would not be easy or cheap to operate and would require substantial resources, he added; the ABPI remains convinced that it would not be in the interests of patients' and that it would adversely affect the search for new treatments.