The cost of imported blood products charged by the Blood Transfusion Service Board to hospitals was lowered following representations from the director of the National Haemophilia Treatment Centre.
Prof Ian Temperley, in a letter to the BTSB in January 1979, said he believed the NHTC could obtain the products at a price lower than that charged by Pelican House.
It emerged at the tribunal yesterday that following this correspondence the BTSB agreed that from June 1st, 1979, it would reduce the cost of Hemofil, a product made by Travenol, from 18p to 14p per unit.
An earlier letter from Prof Temperley to the BTSB suggested to the then director, Dr Jack O'Riordan, it should re-examine its policy of purchasing clotting agents from commercial companies.
"We are charged 18p for Hemofil. I understand you purchase the product for 15p. The difference of 3p is cumulatively substantial and amounts to £6,600 in 1977 so far as the national centre is concerned," he wrote.
He said he understood that Dr Elizabeth Mayne, a treating doctor in Northern Ireland, was being charged 10p per unit and that another company, Cutter, could offer the product for substantially less than the 15p charged by Travenol.
Counsel for the Irish Haemophilia Society, Mr John Trainor SC, suggested to Dr Emer Lawlor, who was in the witness-box for the ninth day, that there was a significant difference between the price in Northern Ireland and the Republic. Dr Lawlor said there was a different pricing structure throughout Europe.
Dr Lawlor agreed there did not seem to be any attempt by the BTSB to source factor concentrates at a cheaper price until Prof Temperley suggested it.
In his reply Dr O'Riordan said it was "high time" it discussed the purchase of commercial concentrates and whether it should be purchasing them at all.
Prof Temperley, in a second letter, suggested the review should include the cost of both commercial factor 8 and factor 9 supplied by Pelican House. He believed doctors could get them cheaper than the price charged by the BTSB.