Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he has had recent discussions with (a) NHS England, (b) the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence and (c) the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency on access for patients to licensed treatments for Alzheimer's disease.

Ministers have had a number of recent discussions with the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA), the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE), and NHS England, about patient access to new, licensed treatments for Alzheimer’s disease.

Recommendations on whether new licensed medicines should be routinely funded by the National Health Service are made independently by the NICE on the basis of an assessment of their costs and benefits. The methods and processes that the NICE uses are internationally respected and have been developed through extensive engagement with academics, industry, patients, and clinicians, to ensure that they reflect best practice and societal preferences. The NHS in England is legally required to fund medicines recommended in a NICE appraisal, usually within three months of final guidance.

The Dame Barbara Windsor Dementia Goals programme aims to speed up the development of new treatments for dementia and neurodegenerative conditions, and is working with the relevant partners to develop solutions around access for patients to licensed treatments for Alzheimer’s disease.