Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he has made an assessment of the potential merits of introducing regular reporting to Parliament on (a) the progress and (b) the impact on private sector research and development of the Voluntary Scheme for Branded Medicines Pricing and Access.

The Department has no plans to re-instate the reports to Parliament on the 2019 Voluntary Scheme for Branded Medicines Pricing and Access (VPAS), which were a requirement under the 2014 The Pharmaceutical Price Regulation Scheme (PPRS). This requirement was removed from the 2019 VPAS with the agreement of the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry.

We are open to ideas about how a successor voluntary scheme should operate from 2024 onwards and look forward to working with industry to agree a mutually beneficial scheme that supports the sustainability of National Health Service spend on branded medicines, better patient outcomes and enables a strong life sciences industry in the United Kingdom.