But Lord....Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the
Open Parliament Licence v3.0. I support the main purpose of the Bill, which is to control the cost of unbranded generic
medicines if the competitive market is not working properly in respect of particular products.
We have all seen what happened when Pfizer and Flynn Pharma hiked the price of an
anti-epilepsy drug used by the NHS by over 2,000% when a branded drug came off patent.
The proposed £90 million fine from the Competition and Markets Authority should be a
salutary warning to others contemplating such action, but I understand why the Government
are taking preventive legislative measures, and I fully support that.
However, as the Minister indicated, the Bill goes a good deal wider than stopping the
NHS being ripped off when branded drugs go off patent, and that is where we need to
probe a little further.