Steve Brine corrected a written answer on Thyroid Gland: Diseases

7 December 2017 · Commons written answer · Department of Health

Royston Smith (Conservative, Southampton, Itchen) asked written question 116477 on 29 November 2017. Steve Brine answered on 7 December 2017 for the Department of Health, and Steve Brine corrected the answer on 7 December 2017. The corrected text no longer gives the figure £800 million. Altogether 240 words differ between the two versions.

The question

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what medicines NHS England has approved for patients with thyroid conditions

Original and corrected answer

Struck through: original only. Bold: correction only.

Original	Corrected
~~For unbranded generics the Government relies on completion to keep prices down which generally works well~~ and ~~has led to low prices of these medicines. We alert the Competition~~ and Markets Authority (CMA) when we believe that competition does not work. In the case of liothyronine, the CMA is currently investigating Concordia’s potential abuse of its dominant position to overcharge the National Health Service for liothyronine. In primary care community pharmacies are incentivised to source products at the ~~lowest possible cost by allowing them to retain~~ the medicines ~~margin (the difference between what~~ the ~~NHS reimburses a pharmacy for a product and how much the pharmacy purchases it for) up to £800 million in England. In secondary care, competitive tenders ensure value-for-money to the NHS.~~	NHS England is not responsible for approving medicines. The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) is responsible for ensuring that medicines and medical devices work and are acceptably safe. The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence makes recommendations for the National Health Service on whether medicines and other treatments represent a clinically and cost effective use of NHS resources. A list of medicines licensed by the MHRA for the treatment of thyroid conditions is attached. The list is split into two sections because thyroid conditions can be split into either those associated with an overactive thyroid (hyperthyroidism), or an underactive thyroid (hypothyroidism). The list contains only those medicines licensed for overactive and underactive thyroid. It should be noted that not all of the medicines listed will be available on the market at any one time.

Original

Corrected

~~For unbranded generics the Government relies on completion to keep prices down which generally works well~~ and ~~has led to low prices of these medicines. We alert the Competition~~ and Markets Authority (CMA) when we believe that competition does not work. In the case of liothyronine, the CMA is currently investigating Concordia’s potential abuse of its dominant position to overcharge the National Health Service for liothyronine.
In primary care community pharmacies are incentivised to source products at the ~~lowest possible cost by allowing them to retain~~ the medicines ~~margin (the difference between what~~ the ~~NHS reimburses a pharmacy for a product and how much the pharmacy purchases it for) up to £800 million in England. In secondary care, competitive tenders ensure value-for-money to the NHS.~~

NHS England is not responsible for approving medicines. The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) is responsible for ensuring that medicines and medical devices work and are acceptably safe. The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence makes recommendations for the National Health Service on whether medicines and other treatments represent a clinically and cost effective use of NHS resources.
A list of medicines licensed by the MHRA for the treatment of thyroid conditions is attached. The list is split into two sections because thyroid conditions can be split into either those associated with an overactive thyroid (hyperthyroidism), or an underactive thyroid (hypothyroidism). The list contains only those medicines licensed for overactive and underactive thyroid. It should be noted that not all of the medicines listed will be available on the market at any one time.

The question and answer on the Parliament website.

Receipt

Read from	https://questions-statements-api.parliament.uk/api/writtenquestions/questions/797514?expandMember=true
Date read	15 October 2026
SHA-256	`1006e8033a7ccc5ea9ed353bdf21a1ddd2412946cce7d53985deb68fec8405b6`