Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of reviewing the way the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence and NHS England evaluate and adopt Advanced Therapy Medicinal Products as technologies with the potential to deliver significant health gains over long periods of time.

The National Institute of Health and Care Excellence (NICE) recently carried out a comprehensive review of its methods and processes for health technology evaluation to ensure that they were appropriate to emerging new technologies such as advanced therapeutic medicinal products (ATMPs). NICE published its updated health technology evaluation manual in January 2022 and has introduced a number of changes that ensure that its appraisal processes are suitable for emerging new medicines, including a broader severity modifier and changes to better respond to uncertainty. There are no plans for a further assessment of NICE’s processes for evaluating ATMPs.

NICE’s methods and processes have been proven to be suitable for ATMPs where companies are willing to price their products in a way that represents value to the taxpayer. NICE has recommended 80% of the ATMPs it has evaluated for use by the National Health Service and they are now available for the treatment of NHS patients, including through the Cancer Drugs Fund and managed access agreements negotiated between the NHS and the manufacturer.