Written question asked by Philip Hollobone (Conservative) on Thursday, 17 November 2005, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Monday, 21 November 2005. It was answered by Jane Kennedy (Labour) on Tuesday, 20 December 2005 on behalf of the Department of Health.

Medicines

Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Health if she will make a statement on the provision of safe and effective medicines for the NHS at reasonable prices.

Answer: The prices of branded prescription medicines and the profits that companies are allowed to make on their sales to the national health service (NHS) are controlled by the pharmaceutical price regulation scheme (PPRS). It aims to achieve a balance between reasonable prices for the NHS and a fair return for the industry to enable it to develop and market new and improved medicines. The 2005 PPRS included a price reduction of 7 percent., which will deliver expenditure savings of some £2 billion over the next five years for the NHS in England.New arrangements to set the reimbursement of generic medicines were introduced from 1 April 2004. These reflect the underlying market price of these medicines and will reduce the cost of the medicines by £300 million per annum. This money is being used to fund the new pharmacy contractual framework. The new framework gives primary care trusts the opportunity to work with local pharmacists to develop a range of high quality community pharmacy services. This will make them an integral part of local primary care provision.

Secondary information