Viagra
Action “Legally Indefensible”
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Pfizer told the High
Court on Monday that Health Secretary Frank Dobson was acting outside
his powers when he issued guidance last September to encourage doctors
not to prescribe the drug.
Viagra was licensed
for use in European Union countries in September, but Mr Dobson, fearful
of the cost of the drug to the NHS, told doctors they should only prescribe
it in exceptional circumstances, pending further notice.
NHS trusts were also told not to support Viagra being provided on the NHS.
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Pfizer says this went
against doctors' statutory duties to prescribe according to clinical need
and may have been in breach of EU law.
It says the drug can
only be legally rationed with parliamentary approval, as the government
is now seeking to do.
Professional and
Legal Duty
David Pannick, QC, for
Pfizer, told the court: "This circular is legally indefensible.
"Its purpose and
its effect was to deter GPs from prescribing Viagra.
"We say GPs have
a professional and legal duty to exercise their clinical judgment and
to prescribe such treatment with such medicine as a patient needs irrespective
of the patient's ability to pay for it."
Since the September
guidance was issued, the government has published its views on which patients
should receive Viagra.
Last week, it increased
the number of men who could get the drug.
They include men with
diabetes, prostate cancer and Parkinson's Disease.
Impotence experts say the list is still restrictive and discriminatory.
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Mr Pannick said the
High Court action could be "a precursor" to further legal action
over Viagra.
He is asking the court
to decide whether the Health Secretary is right to imply that GPs have
no statutory right to prescribe according to clinical need.
Clinical Need
Pfizer is said to be
considering whether to take action against the government over last week's
decision to limit NHS availability of Viagra.
The British Medical
Association has asked its members to continue prescribing Viagra on the
NHS to anyone who has a clinical need.
But it says that, if
the new guidance gets parliamentary approval - as Mr Dobson predicts it
will do by July - doctors will have to conform.
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The Department of Health,
which is expected to deny Pfizer's allegations, feared that excessive
demand for Viagra could cost the health service more than £1bn a year.
Mr Pannick said GPs
often had to deal with patients who might make false claims, and it was
for the doctor to use his professional judgment in each case and prescribe
what was appropriate.
He added that some of
the reasons given on Mr Dobson's behalf for the Viagra restrictions "simply
don't withstand serious scrutiny".
"If this was not a serious matter the reasons would be laughable. They are entirely without justification".
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Source
BBC News