Earl of Liverpool

The Accelerated Access Pathway (AAP) will launch in April 2018 with the aim of getting those innovations that we believe will be truly transformative to patients more quickly.

The establishment of the pathway has been led by government and its partners, working with industry and patients.

The co-ordination of government’s input to the development of the pathway sits with the Office for Life Sciences, which is a joint unit between both the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) and the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC). A representative from BEIS will sit on the Accelerated Access Collaborative, the body responsible for overseeing the implementation of the Accelerated Access Pathway.

The Accelerated Access Collaborative (AAC) has now been established, with the first meeting held in January 2018. The AAC is led by an independent chair and made up of senior representation from NHS England, the National Institute for Health Research, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence, NHS Improvement, the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency, Government, industry and patients.

Sir Andrew Witty was appointed the first independent chair, but has recently stepped down to avoid a perception of conflict of interest following his appointment as Chief Executive Officer of Optum. We will announce the new chair of the AAC shortly. The AAC has made strong progress under Sir Andrew Witty’s Chairmanship and we want to thank him for the excellent progress he made in establishing the AAC during his short time as the chair. We are confident that the Accelerated Access Pathway remains on track to launch in April 2018, as previously announced.

The Government has a range of measures in place to support research and development into novel antimicrobials by small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) as part of our strategy to tackle antimicrobial resistance.

The Department funds investment of £1 billion annually in the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR). This includes funding for research infrastructure in the National Health Service which actively supports collaboration with the life sciences industry and supports the commercialisation of new research and related technologies to help grow new companies (including SMEs) and funding. The NIHR also funds the Invention for Innovation (i4i) Programme that supports collaborative research and development projects in medtech SMEs, universities and the NHS on the development of innovative medical technologies.

Other investments that provide opportunities for SMEs include:

- The £50 million Global AMR Innovation Fund to target investment globally in neglected and underinvested areas in antimicrobial resistance (AMR) research and development for the benefit of people in low and middle income countries. The scope includes the development of novel antimicrobials, including opportunities arising from traditional Chinese medicine; and

- A call for AMR capital research proposals for Departmental funding of £4 million delivered by Innovate UK in 2016/17. The Department plans to invest a further £43 million on a portfolio of AMR capital research investments over the next three years, subject to appropriate business case approvals.

There is currently no fast track trial of wound care products.

However, the National Health Service Clinical Evaluation Team are undertaking a number of evaluations on everyday healthcare consumables, which includes wound care products that are currently held in the NHS Supply Chain catalogue. Reports on these are published on an ongoing basis on the NHS Business Services Authority’s website.