Greg Mulholland – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Greg Mulholland on 2015-10-29.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps he is taking to support and promote the (a) use and (b) continued production and purchase of existing off-patent drugs.

George Freeman

Existing arrangements allow patients to access the medicines which are appropriate for their care, including off-patent drugs. Doctors may prescribe any drug, whether within the terms of its license or not, where it best meets the individual clinical needs of a patient. Medicines are already prescribed legally, safely and appropriately outside their licensed indications to large numbers of National Health Service patients.

The Department works closely with the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency, NHS England, the pharmaceutical industry and others in the supply chain to help ensure continuity in the supply of medicines to patients.