Prescription Drugs

(asked on 28th October 2014) - View Source

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what criteria a newly licensed medicine must fulfil in order to be considered for an interim clinical commissioning policy by NHS England; and what the process is for establishing such a policy by NHS England.


Answered by
George Freeman Portrait
George Freeman
This question was answered on 4th November 2014

We are informed by NHS England that the only criteria required are that the medicine falls within NHS England’s responsibility for directly commissioned services and that the medicine will not be reviewed through the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence’s (NICE) technology appraisal and highly specialised technologies programmes.

Under certain circumstances, for example, where there is a clinical urgency to provide access to a particular medicine prior to receiving final guidance from NICE, NHS England may adopt an interim policy.

Draft policies produced by the relevant clinical reference group are endorsed by the Clinical Priorities Advisory Group and then confirmed by the Specialised Commissioning Oversight Group.

Reticulating Splines