Health: Rare Diseases

Lord Hunt of Kings Heath Excerpts

Tuesday 3rd March 2015 Lords Chamber

[Lord Hunt of Kings Heath (Lab)]

My Lords, my name was inadvertently missed off the list, so I am going to speak in the gap. I will give the noble Earl his full 12 minutes. Perhaps I may put two points to him.

First, will the noble Earl agree to my noble friend’s recommendation that the Ministers institute a thorough review? I stress that this should be done by Ministers. NHS England has shown itself incapable of doing the job properly. Ministers are much more accountable and much more aware of the rare disease issue and I really do think they need to take charge.

Secondly, in the new agreement with the drug industry, any increase in the cost of drugs over five years is being met by the industry through rebates. Why on earth are those rebates not being used to fund innovative new drugs for rare diseases? Can it just be that the NHS is under such financial pressure that this money has had to be raided, when it should have been used for innovative new drugs?