Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if his Department will take steps to (a) develop and (b) implement a rapid system of evaluating new protective and prophylactic Covid-19 drugs and treatments.

As we move out of the pandemic response, it is right that existing methods for understanding the clinical and cost-effectiveness of medicines are used to inform routine commissioning arrangements, including for new COVID-19 drugs and treatments.

The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) is the independent, expert body responsible for developing authoritative, evidence-based recommendations for the National Health Service on whether new medicines represent a clinically and cost-effective use of resources.

As part of supporting this transition, NICE published final guidance on 29 March that recommends three medicines as options for treating COVID-19 in adults. Because new COVID-19 variants develop over time, NICE is also developing a new review process to update its recommendations on the clinical and cost-effectiveness of COVID-19 treatments, so they can be made available more quickly to patients if they show promise against new variants and are found to be cost-effective. A four-week public consultation on proposals for the new rapid update process was launched on 6 April.

New medicines for COVID-19 that are referred to NICE by the Department will be evaluated through NICE’s technology appraisal process. NICE aims to publish guidance within 90 days of marketing authorisation (licensing) being issued by the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency. NICE works with stakeholders to align its appraisal timelines with the regulatory process.