Medicines and Medical Devices Bill

Baroness Garden of Frognal Excerpts

2nd reading & 2nd reading (Hansard) & 2nd reading (Hansard): House of Lords
Wednesday 2nd September 2020 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Redfern (Con) [V]]

I congratulate the Minister on introducing this important Bill and the review team, led by my noble friend Lady Cumberlege, on its commitment to patient safety.

This Bill delivers an extensive programme for the regulation of medicines, veterinary medicines and medical devices in the UK, and provides for a high standard of safety. To capture the fast pace of innovation in these areas within a regulatory legal framework, it is important to share vital information and be responsive and flexible, while being less complex and unwieldy, with data central to effectiveness. Can the Minister say how the duty to consult on regulations about human medicines will be carried out and which stakeholders will be involved?

I am pleased to see the Bill upholding and enhancing of the attractiveness of UK life sciences, as mentioned by previous noble Lords, while not hindering its ability to continue to provide for these important innovations for patients. It demonstrates a wish to make clear the importance of commitment to the life sciences sector, which is worth over £75 billion to our economy. We all know and acknowledge that enhancing continued collaboration of technical and scientific expertise is of significant importance to the UK going forward, but it should not be put before patient and user safety.

There is also a government commitment to a world- leading regulatory system, enhancing us as an attractive destination for clinical trials; to allowing strong collaboration, not just across the EU but maintaining alignment with global standards on the different routes to accessing innovation; to supporting patients’ access to innovation, creating more opportunities as we leave the EU; to maintaining and strengthening our position as a global player in the world of R&D; to allowing the removal of barriers to hub and spoke dispensing, giving smaller community pharmacies the same opportunities as large pharmacies; and to extending low-risk drug prescribing to other healthcare professionals.

An area of concern in the dispensing of medicines is oversupply, particularly in repeat prescriptions. Unused medicines have an environmental impact, so I would like to know how that can be responded to. How, too, can regulations be made to provide for a database of information on medical devices, to be established and managed by the Health and Social Care Information Centre?

As with human medicines regulations, the framework in the Veterinary Medicines Regulations 2013 upholds the safety of veterinary medicines by having a robust system for their availability, development and supply. Changes making prescribing professionals for veterinary medicines as accessible as possible, without compromising animal safety and while ensuring that the person administering the medicine is protected, are to be welcomed.

The Bill is an important piece of legislation for the regulatory system for medicines and medical devices, and for enabling new developments, but it must always display safety front and centre. The Government have stipulated that they do not intend to make any bold policy changes without full consultation, and that is to be welcomed.

[The Deputy Speaker (Baroness Garden of Frognal) (LD)]

The noble Lord, Lord Gadhia, has withdrawn from the debate, so I now call the noble Baroness, Lady Sheehan.

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[Baroness Morgan of Drefelin (CB) [V]]

My Lords, I declare an interest as chief executive of the research and care charity Breast Cancer Now and as chair of the National Cancer Research Institute.

I would like to start by congratulating the noble Baroness, Lady Cumberlege, and her colleagues on her committee, for her report and her compelling contribution today; it was incredibly moving. I, too, will be supporting steps to see this Bill serve as a vehicle for the implementation of her recommendations, most notably, as so many Peers have commented today, the establishment of a patient safety commissioner.

This Bill covers two areas of particular concern to cancer patients that I wish to emphasise today, which others have touched on, too. These are access to clinical trials and speed of access to newly licensed medicines. For the estimated 35,000 women living with incurable secondary breast cancer in the UK, clinical trials can provide early access to potential new treatments which might extend the time before their disease progresses, which might extend their lives and which can improve quality of life. These women often have few treatment options available to them, and clinical trials really do offer people with incurable secondary breast cancer and other cancers hope for the future. I do not want us to underestimate the value of that in these debates.

Research is, as we have heard, underpinned by pan-European and international collaboration. As an example, over 4,800 EU clinical trials involved the UK between 2004 and 2016. That is a significant number of important trials. The new EU clinical trials regulation, which we have already heard about today, will improve patient safety and streamline the process for setting up new trials, and this is vital. The Government made an extremely welcome commitment in 2018 to align as closely as possible with the new regulation, and it is essential that this commitment is restated and honoured. Today is an opportunity for that. However, without access to the infrastructure that clinical trials require, such as the portal and the database to support the regulation system, it will become much more difficult to run clinical trials across borders; that has already been talked about today.

Where trials show that medicines are safe and effective, it is vital that they are licensed and made available to patients as quickly as possible. We have heard today that the EMEA area represents 25% of global pharmaceutical sales and the UK just 3%. These are important numbers to bear in mind. If the pharmaceutical companies have to make a separate application to the MHRA, and incur additional costs, to license their medicines, delays are likely in those medicines becoming available in the UK. This is a threat to timely access for patients to new medicines, and its importance should not be underestimated.

We are also particularly concerned about access to medicines developed by small pharmaceutical companies. Can the Minister give some reassurance to patients with secondary breast cancer and other incurable cancers that access to clinical trials and newly licensed medicines will not be adversely impacted by the effects of this Bill? I look forward to hearing from the Minister.

[The Deputy Speaker (Baroness Garden of Frognal) (LD)]

The noble Lord, Lord Darzi, has withdrawn, so I now call the noble Lord, Lord Freyberg.