David Amess – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

The below Parliamentary question was asked by David Amess on 2016-03-01.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what recent discussions he has had with NHS England and NICE on the Cancer Drugs Fund consultation; and whether he discussed with those bodies whether proposals on the future of that fund would (a) increase and (b) restrict access to cancer medicines.

George Freeman

My Rt. hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Health has been kept informed as this work has been progressed.

NHS England has advised that it envisages, under the new arrangements for the Cancer Drugs Fund, that a greater number of cancer drugs will be funded from baseline commissioning. This will be as a consequence of more appropriate pricing arrangements proposed by pharmaceutical manufacturers and better evidence being available through the Fund as to longer term patient outcomes.