Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the effectiveness of the Early Access to Medicines Scheme in encouraging pharmaceutical companies to launch promising and innovative medicines in the UK.

The Life Sciences Industrial Strategy set out our vision of being a world-leader in developing and bringing to market innovative medicines to improve life-chances of United Kingdom patients. It highlighted the importance of evolving and simplifying the access system for new medicines by implementing, and building on, the findings of the Accelerated Access Review.

The Early Access to Medicines Scheme (EAMS) is an essential part of delivering on this ambition. It has been effective in encouraging companies to bring their products to the UK and market them. The figures below show increasing engagement from industry as the scheme has progressed.

The EAMS task group has been established to provide a forum for industry to engage with the Government, the devolved administrations and arm’s length bodies, driving further improvements to the scheme and making the UK a more attractive place to test and deliver new pharmaceuticals.