Select Committee on Health First Report

THE PROBLEM

Price rises

12. In recent months generic drugs have gone up in price as the following table indicates:

Cost for 28 Days supply of Drug[16]

Drug Name & Strength	Sep-98	Dec-98	Mar-99	Jun-99	Sep-99	% Increase Sep - Sep
Atenolol 50 mg	90p	87p	102p	122p	146p	62
Atenolol 100 mg	122p	117p	136p	157p	192p	57
Thyroxine 50 mg	19p	24p	44p	79p	87p	360
Thyroxine 100 mg	21p	24p	67p	144p	162p	670
Warfarin 3 mg	82p	76p	106p	158p	170p	107
Warfarin 5 mg	121p	126p	160p	258p	276p	128
Bendrofluozide 5 mg	15p	15p	15p	32p	100p	567
Bendrofluozide 2.5 mg	15p	15p	18p	32p	86p	473
Aspirin 300 mg	12p	13p	13p	13p	13p	8
Frusemide 40 mg	26p	28p	28p	193p	214p	723
Amoxycillin 250 mg (15)	47p	47p	71p	83p	169p	260
Amoxycillin lig125 mg/ml/100ml	91p	96p	103p	107p	134p	48
Amoxycillin lig250 mg/ml/100 ml	153p	162p	174p	181p	225p	48

Price rises are demonstrated most starkly by a BBC Newsnight survey which suggested that, of 464 commonly prescribed generic drugs, 132 had increased in price by more than 50% in the last 12 months.[17]

Apparent shortages

13. As described above, if a generic drug is in short supply (as categorized by the Government) and cannot be obtained at the Drug Tariff price, it is placed in Category D. In September 1998 the number of drugs listed in Category D was 30. That figure has now risen to 192.[18] Over the last six months Category D drugs have gone from 1% to 16% of the total number of prescriptions.

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16   Ev., p5. Back

17   GD18 (not printed) and BBC News website. Back

18   Ev., p7. Back

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Prepared 21 December 1999