Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Jane Ellison and Andrea Jenkyns

Tuesday 5th July 2016 Commons Chamber

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Health (Jane Ellison)]

The O’Neill AMR review is galvanising global awareness, as I have seen for myself, and it is greatly to the Prime Minister’s credit that he showed the foresight to commission it. The UK continues to play a global leadership role on antimicrobial resistance. We co-sponsored the World Health Organisation’s 2015 global action plan on AMR, we created the Fleming fund to help poorer countries to tackle drug resistance, and we are now championing action, including taking forward the O’Neill review’s recommendations, through the United Nations, the G7, and the G20.

[Andrea Jenkyns]

I recently met biotech firm Matoke Holdings, which has developed a new technology—reactive oxygen technology. It has found that this technology forms the basis of a whole new generation of antibiotics that has been proven to combat multi-resistant bacteria, including MRSA. This is an incredibly exciting development. Will my hon. Friend and her team agree to meet Matoke Holdings to hear about the new technology and the pace at which it has developed? What are the Government doing to support research into new antibiotics?

[Jane Ellison]

My hon. Friend will be aware that a key focus of the O’Neill review was how to incentivise the development of new antimicrobials. It is scary to think that there has not been a new class of antibiotics for some decades now. The Government are funding an extensive AMR research programme. Matoke Holdings has been in contact with the Department, and we are in the process of arranging a meeting to discuss reactive oxygen technology in the coming weeks. My ministerial colleague the Under-Secretary of State for Life Sciences has indicated that he would also be happy to have such a meeting.

--- Later in debate ---

[Jane Ellison]

As Members will know, the Department has asked the Advisory Committee on the Safety of Blood, Tissues and Organs—SaBTO—to review the donor selection criteria for blood donation that relate to men who have sex with men. SaBTO has approved the remit, the terms of reference and the work streams, and it is cracking on. It has a second meeting coming up later this month. The chair of the working group has written to the chair of the all-party group, welcoming its inquiry and inviting it to contribute evidence during the autumn.

[Andrea Jenkyns (Morley and Outwood) (Con)]

T7. To expand on the question asked by the shadow Secretary of State, I too would like to raise the case of my constituent Abi Longfellow who suffers from dense deposit disease and is awaiting a decision by the NHS’s specialised commissioning body. She and her family have been subjected to frequent delays and miscommunications. I first met Health Ministers, NICE and NHS England a year ago to discuss Abi’s situation. What steps will the Government take to ensure that decisions on treatments such as this are taken in a timely fashion and that families are kept updated on the progress of those decisions?

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Jane Ellison and Andrea Jenkyns

Tuesday 2nd June 2015 Commons Chamber

[Andrea Jenkyns (Morley and Outwood) (Con)]

14. What the NHS’s criteria are for dispensing eculizumab.

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Health (Jane Ellison)]

May I give my hon. Friend a particularly warm welcome to her place? NHS England routinely commissions eculizumab for the treatment of paroxysmal nocturnal haemoglobinuria, or PNH, and atypical haemolytic uraemic syndrome, or aHUS, as the drug is proven to be safe and effective in treating these conditions.

[Andrea Jenkyns]

I very much welcome the statement last week from the Prime Minister in which he requests NHS England to look into the case of my constituent, 12-year-old Abi Longfellow. I am sure that gives great hope to Abi’s family. Abi has a rarer form of DDD—dense deposit disease—involving the alternative complement pathway, and there is evidence that eculizumab helps. Will my hon. Friend ensure that NHS England looks at this rare form and gathers evidence not just from the UK but from countries such as the US, China and Canada which have research and trials in this area?

[Jane Ellison]

This is a particularly difficult and tragic case. My hon. Friend is right to champion the case of her young constituent. My right hon. Friend the Prime Minister asked NHS England to make further contact with the Longfellow family to fully explain the decision, and I can confirm that the clinical director for specialised services at NHS England North has spoken to the family twice in the past few days. The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence is reviewing, as a priority, the evidence on the use of eculizumab in treating this condition.