Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what estimate he has made of the cost to the NHS of removing generic medicines required to have a brand name by the MHRA from the Statutory Scheme of Control the Prices of Branded Health Service Medicines.

The Department consulted on options to amend the Statutory Scheme regulations which control the prices of branded health service medicines. Both the voluntary Pharmaceutical Price Regulation Scheme and the statutory scheme include all health service medicines with a brand name, including those required by the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency to have a brand name. The Department did not propose any changes to the scope of the statutory scheme in this respect and has not made an estimate of the cost of removing those branded medicines from the statutory scheme.

The Department received responses from a range of organisations including National Health Service, independent bodies and pharmaceutical industry. The Department is currently analysing the responses from a range of organisations including NHS, independent bodies and pharmaceutical industry.

The consultation and impact assessment can be accessed using the following link.

https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/pricing-of-branded-health-service-medicines