Introduction

The consumption of medicines in Britain is increasing. In the five years between 1963 and 1968 the average number of prescriptions per person on National Health Service prescribing lists rose from 4.6 to 5.7 a year. The number of prescriptions rose from 206 millions to 267 millions, the annual cost from £96 million to £152 million. ¹ When the National Health Service was introduced in 1948 and prescribed medicines became available free of charge to everyone, many people thought, and those in the patent ² medicine industry feared, that people would buy fewer medicines over the counter. This did not happen and the retail sales of medicines increased and continued to do so, ³ in spite of new legislation and codes of practice controlling their advertising. ⁴ The pharmaceutical industry has expanded faster than most other industries in Britain recently. Board of Trade Output Indices for 1968 (at constant prices) show that the production of pharmaceutical preparations has increased by 67% since 1963, compared with an overall rise of 40% in the chemical industry and 21% in manufacturing industry as a whole. ⁵ Both the public and the medical profession are the targets of the industry’s marketing policies. The industry has created an increasing supply of new products both for the ethical ⁶ and over-the-counter markets; the public and the doctors keep up the demand.