The Secretary of State for Health (Mr Jeremy Hunt)
This morning Sir Hugh Taylor has published the final report of the accelerated access review (AAR). The AAR was tasked with making recommendations to the Government on reforms to accelerate access for NHS patients to innovative medicines, medical technologies, diagnostics and digital products. The report sets out a framework of recommendations to streamline and accelerate the pathway for new products from development to their use with patients and to enable widespread adoption across the NHS.
The Government welcome Sir Hugh’s final report and are grateful to him, Sir John Bell, the external champions and the external advisory group for their excellent work, which draws upon contributions from many individuals and organisations from patient groups, the NHS, industry, academia and clinicians. We are grateful for the important input that this review has had from NHS England NICE, the MHRA and NHS Improvement.
The report provides us with a strong basis to make the right decisions about how the health system can be adapted to meet the challenges of the future, attract inward investment, grow our thriving life sciences industry and use innovation to improve patient outcomes in the context of the financial pressures on the NHS. It will be important to implement this report in a way that is affordable for the NHS. The Government will now consider the proposals in detail with our partners and will provide a fuller response in due course.
The Government remain strongly committed to the life sciences and to building a long-term partnership with industry. It is determined to help the UK become the best place in the world to produce new drugs and products that can transform the health of patients, where the research, development, regulatory, commercialisation and investment infrastructure enable innovation to flourish and thrive while improving patient’s lives.
AAR Final Report (AAR final.pdf) can be viewed online at: http://www.parliament.uk/business/publications/ written-questions-answers-statements/written-statement/Commons/2016-10-24/HCWS209/.
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