Cystic Fibrosis Drugs: Orkambi
Debate between Mike Penning and Paul Scully(5 years, 6 months ago)
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Paul Scully
My hon. Friend makes an interesting point. Clearly, a portfolio of drugs is coming through the system. The original drugs treated only 5% of cystic fibrosis sufferers, but now the figure is 50%. The triple therapy that is being researched can benefit up to 90%, and clinical trials show an increase of 10% in some people’s lung capacity in a single week of using the drug. It is disappointing that Vertex has not included the triple therapy in its negotiations about the portfolio. None the less, my hon. Friend is right that the NICE system needs to be reviewed to take an interesting and innovative approach to drug research in future.
Sir Mike Penning (Hemel Hempstead) (Con)
There are those who are listening to the debate but are not experts like the families who live with this every day, but lung transplants are a common procedure. The lungs fill up and do not function, and lung transplants are often the only option. How does NICE take that into consideration? It cannot do so when it is looking at the viability and cost-effectiveness of Orkambi.
Paul Scully
My right hon. Friend makes a really interesting observation. This morning I saw a number of people, some of whom have had a lung transplant. Orkambi was able to get them to the point where they could have a lung transplant in the first place. I spoke to most of the people via video link, because they could not be in the same room as me due to the risk of cross-infection and aspergillosis hitting their lungs. Aspergillus gets in our lungs, and most of us just bat it off and do not have an issue with it. However, it can adversely affect these people’s lung functions, or even be fatal. That is how debilitating the disease is. What struck me about all this are the mental health issues behind it, which I will come back to later.