Medicines regulation and sponsorship in one department is best for balance, says minister
Medicines regulation and advocacy of the pharmaceutical industry are within the same Government department because it is the best way of getting the right balance between the two, according to Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Health Lord Warner.
Giving evidence to the House of Commons Health Select Committee inquiry into the influence of the pharmaceutical industry, Lord Warner said last
week that the right balance had been struck at the Department of Health.
“The balance has been struck between having a health department
which has a
responsibility as a sponsor department for the industry and is also safeguarding
the patients’ interests and NHS interests.” It achieved this
through both its regulatory role and its purchasing power.
Lord Warner added that the National Audit Office had found that there
was no evidence that the DoH was too close to the industry.
The minister also defended the funding of the Medicines and Healthcare
products Regulatory Agency entirely by licence fees paid by pharmaceutical
companies. He said that there had been a medicines licensing backlog
when the licensing process was Government-funded because public funds
had been insufficient to maintain the capacity of the then DoH Medicines
Division to keep up with applications. |
The
Pharmaceutical Journal
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