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Politics : PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Les H who wrote (7081)	10/5/1999 5:51:00 PM
From: Neocon	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 769670

Fight the good fight, I must get moving.....

To: Les H who wrote (7081)	10/5/1999 11:37:00 PM
From: Les H	Respond to of 769670

UK says some drugs banned on cost grounds - paper LONDON, Oct 6 (Reuters) - Britain has told the European Commission some drugs are excluded from the state-run National Health System because they are too expensive, the Daily Telegraph reported on Wednesday. The British pharmaceutical industry and the Labour government have clashed publicly since the rejection by a key advisory body of state backing for the Relenza influenza treatment from Glaxo Wellcome (quote from Yahoo! UK & Ireland: GLXO.L). Britain had given the European Commission six separate reasons over the last 10 years on why medicines were withheld from free prescriptions on the NHS, the newspaper said, quoting a letter sent by Health Secretary Frank Dobson to the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry in June. These included drugs which were abused by drug addicts, those with only ``borderline' therapeutic value and products superseded by cheaper products, it said. The Daily Telegraph said a fifth criterion was cost. It quoted a Health Ministry spokesman as saying the issue was not one of cost but ``cost effectiveness.' The heads of three large British pharmaceuticals companies were seeking a meeting with Prime Minister Tony Blair in the wake of the expected exclusion of Relenza, newspapers said on Wednesday. AstraZeneca Plc (quote from Yahoo! UK & Ireland: AZN.L), Glaxo and SmithKline Beecham (quote from Yahoo! UK & Ireland: SB.L) sent a letter on Tuesday to Blair requesting an ``urgent meeting' because of the ``gravity of the threat' presented by the proposed ban on Relenza, the Times and Independent reported. Estimates say the Relenza drug could cost the cash-strapped NHS more than 100 million pounds ($165.2 million) in an epidemic year with the drug costing 24 pounds for a full course. Glaxo says the cost in a normal year would be 10-15 million pounds.