UK GOVT URGES OTC USE, ECONOMIC EVALUATION

The pharmaceutical industry cannot keep presenting governments with ever-increasing bills, even for research and development. It has got to be able to show governments that all the public expenditure being paid out is cost-effective and that the bills are worth paying, according to UK Minister for Health Brian Mawhinney.

He told Management Forum's annual pharmaceutical conference in London last week that economic evaluation is now one of the most important issues facing the industry. The real-term growth rate of the National Health Service drug bill is continuing to increase and this is not supportable, he said; there is no infinite pot of taxpayers' money. Yet it would be too easy for government to argue simply that costs are too high, and to demand that they are cut. "We want a vigorous industry which can continue to develop new and better medicine for patients, so we must look deeper than just costs, mainly at the causes in the rise of drug bills, and at just how much value for money the taxpayer is actually getting," he said. Areas such as prescribing habits and incentives, as well as patient behavior, would have to be studied.

The government cannot turn a blind eye to this issue, and it wants to explore it further in cooperation with the industry, said the Minister. He would not be drawn as to when or if this type of evaluation might become part of the drug approval process, saying he could not predict the outcome of the constructive debate which he hopes to encourage with companies. There is a long way to go in this, and industry and government must resolve it together, said Dr Mawhinney. He stressed that the emphasis remains on meeting patient needs, and that doing so economically comes second, but repeated that "the main challenge to us all is value for money," and that this issue will not go away.