Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent discussions he has had with NICE on the (a) timeframe for the publication of decision of the NICE evaluation committee meeting held on 23 October 2018 in relation to Spinraza and (b) potential availability of Spinraza on the NHS.

Departmental Ministers and officials have spoken to colleagues at the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) on a number of occasions to enquire about the progress of the technology appraisal of nusinersen for the treatment of spinal muscular atrophy.

On 12 November, following NICE’s second appraisal committee meeting for nusinersen on Tuesday 23 October, NICE informed registered stakeholders that it and the manufacturer Biogen were continuing to progress discussions and as a result NICE was not in a position to provide the outcome of the committee’s deliberations.