6. Will the First Minister outline how the Welsh Government is supporting the pharmaceutical industry? OAQ54475

I thank the Member for that. The Welsh Government supports the pharmaceutical industry through investment in research, product development, expert promotion and professional development. Earlier this year, for example, the Minister for health announced a new £100,000 funding package for pharmacist training. This funds specialist clinical skills training for 50 new pharmacists across Wales.

Very positive news indeed, First Minister. And, as you will be aware, the pharmaceutical industry in the UK invests £4.3 billion per annum into research and development, more than any other sector of the economy, and the UK has the lowest prices for medicine in the whole of Europe as a consequence. How do you propose this support and investment is secured for the future, given the 'Medicines for the Many' policy launched at the recent Labour Party conference in Brighton—a policy that could rob research and development of much-needed investment, and a policy that the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry has stated will not lead to more patients getting access to the medicines that they need, the medicines that some desperately need? 

Llywydd, there's a long history here in Wales of supporting the pharmaceutical industry. If you'd permit me, I'd like to congratulate my old employers at Cardiff University, where the pharmacy department is this week celebrating its centenary, having opened its doors in October 1919. It continues to carry out research and professional training in the pharmacy field. There are many new ways—and very many calls around this Chamber over many years—in which we support the community pharmacy network here in Wales. But we do that because we have our eyes very firmly on the public interest. There is a long call—it was led by Dr Julian Tudor-Hart here in Wales—for Governments to take action, so that the public interest is put to the fore in medicine production. While we are very keen to work with the pharmaceutical industry to support the many good things that it does in Wales, we shouldn't turn our back on the idea that there may be further ways in which the public interest can be pursued in the pharmaceutical field. As a Government, it is always the public interest that guides our actions in investment, in support for the industry and in new possibilities for doing that in the future.

I would agree that the public interest is integral here, which is why, in relation to the cystic fibrosis drug Orkambi, Vertex isn't only submitting an application for the drug, it's submitting a patient access scheme alongside that, which of course allowed for it to be okayed in Scotland. My question is: how often are these patient access schemes considered here in Wales alongside a drug application, so that we can not only help the drug industry and the pharmaceutical industry—because of course, they exist, and they must exist, although I understand that the parameters could change—but also in terms of how the patients could benefit? Because I do sincerely believe that, sometimes, it's so astronomical in price, that affects how the NHS can allow those drugs to be put on the market. So, we must find a way that, if these drugs sincerely change people's lives, they get access to them, but in a way that is ethical and that helps society as a whole.

I agree entirely with the way that Bethan Sayed put the conundrum at the end of her question. Llywydd, can I express my frustration at the actions of Vertex here in Wales? This company said, in June this year, that it would put forward evidence and a proposal to the all-Wales medicines strategy group, and it has failed to do so. We cannot act to make the drugs available in Wales if the companies that supply them aren't prepared to put their products through the process that we have for their recognition. They said that they would do it in June. I wish that they would get on with it. We want patients in Wales to be able to benefit from medicines where those things have been properly considered. Patient access schemes are often part of the package that we agree with a company. The company was prepared to do it in Scotland, it's indicated that it was prepared to do it in Wales, yet it's failed to take the steps that it promised. I wish they would get on and do it.