The Scottish Government is preparing to introduce new legislation on the minimum pricing of alcohol.
The SNP can count on the support of the Liberal Democrats for minimum pricing.
Alcohol Focus Scotland (AFS) said it was further evidence that minimum pricing will be effective.
BBC: Study claims minimum pricing cuts alcohol-related deaths
She criticised drinks organisations who have challenged the Scottish government's plans to introduce minimum pricing.
BBC: Study claims minimum pricing cuts alcohol-related deaths
However sceptical, all parties should now unite to give minimum pricing a chance to succeed.
The Scottish Tories have also suggested that a blanket minimum pricing policy would not work.
The UK government is currently consulting on introducing a minimum pricing policy in England and Wales.
Minimum pricing is also being challenged in court by the the Scotch Whisky Association.
He said there was no evidence minimum pricing worked because "alcoholics are not sensitive about the pennies".
The European Commission said minimum pricing could put international drink producers at a competitive disadvantage in Scotland.
Dr Evelyn Gillan, chief executive of Alcohol Focus Scotland, said it provided more evidence that minimum pricing works.
They argue a law passed by the Scottish parliament last year on minimum pricing breaches EU trade rules.
Labour's Dr Richard Simpson said there was a lack of evidence for minimum pricing and the policy was unacceptable.
The EC itself has already said "we have a problem with the compatibility of minimum pricing plans under community law".
The Alcohol (Minimum Pricing) (Scotland) Act 2012 was passed last May, as part of an effort to tackle alcohol misuse.
Congress left the job of enforcing of minimum pricing rules exclusively with the Dept. of Health and Human Services, she said.
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Ms Scanlon told the committee the policy of minimum pricing had not been backed sufficiently by the evidence the committee had scrutinised.
Mr Neil will tell commission officials that minimum pricing can save lives.
This has undoubtedly been fuelled by the availability of cheap alcohol in the shops - the very thing minimum pricing is aimed at.
Conservative health spokesman Murdo Fraser's amendment, which called for the Scottish government to remove minimum pricing of alcohol from the bill, was carrried.
The opinion suggests that minimum pricing is a disproportionate way to tackle such concerns and therefore may not be exempt from competition law.
Ms Sturgeon said she regretted that the opposition parties decided to oppose minimum pricing before the Health Committee had "heard a shred of evidence".
Mr Neil said ministers were confident that they could demonstrate that minimum pricing was justified "on the basis of public health and social grounds".
The EC itself has said "what we can say is we have a problem with the compatibility of minimum pricing plans under community law".
In November, the European Commission voiced opposition to Scotland's plans for minimum pricing, describing them as a disproportionate response to the country's drink problems.
But fellow Conservative, former shadow home secretary David Davis described minimum pricing as a "blunderbuss policy" which would punish responsible drinkers on low incomes and pensioners.
Minimum pricing was backed by the police, doctors, nurse, public health experts and all four chief medical officers in the UK, Ms Sturgeon told the chamber.
Earlier she had tried to secure opposition backing for minimum pricing by proposing a "sunset clause" in the legislation, which would review the policy after six years.
The region, home to just over one million people, is one of the few places in the world to have first-hand experience of minimum pricing for alcohol.
Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Willie Rennie has also come round to the idea of minimum pricing, which the SNP previously wanted to set at 45p per unit.
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