Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what estimate his Department has made of the effect of making efficiencies in the cost of medicines on research investment by the pharmaceutical industry.

Independent research has found that the primary drivers of research investment decisions by the pharmaceutical industry are supply side factors such as the skills and science base of the country in question. The price the National Health Service pays for medicines has been found to have a much less significant impact on company investment decisions.