Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will meet with representatives of the charity DEBRA UK to discuss its campaign for £10 million of NHS funding for drug repurposing trials to find treatments to alleviate the severe pain caused by the skin condition epidermolysis bullosa.

We encourage DEBRA to propose candidate medicines for consideration for support from the Medicines Repurposing Programme. The programme provides a tailored package of support to priority repurposed medicines, potentially including support for research, licensing, and implementation. The programme is keen to work in partnership with external organisations including research charities and patient organisations. The eligibility criteria and proposal form are available on request from england.repurposing@nhs.net.