Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, pursuant to the contribution by the Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Health on the Off-patent Drugs Bill of 7 November 2014, columns 1114-1118, what discussions he has had with hospitals and GPs on changing clinical pathways to reflect the latest evidence to improve the uptake of effective off-patent drugs; what steps he has taken to set up a round-table discussion of these issues with NHS England and the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE); when this discussion will take place; and what steps he has taken to accelerate the uptake of (a) off-patent drugs and (b) innovative medicines through NICE guidance.

We have had no such discussions with hospital doctors and general practitioners. Clinicians can already prescribe off-patent drugs and these are widely used in the National Health Service but we are in the process of setting up a round-table discussion with key stakeholders, and are discussing suitable dates with them. Current prescribing arrangements allow clinicians to prescribe such drugs off-label and off-license when it best meets their patients individual clinical needs.

The majority of significant new drugs are referred to the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) technology appraisal work programme. NHS commissioners are required to fund drugs and treatments recommended by NICE technology appraisal guidance. Other NICE guidance, including clinical guidelines, may address the use of off-patent drugs for treating particular conditions and we expect clinicians and commissioners to take account of this guidance.

The Government has recently launched an external review of the pathways for the development, assessment, and adoption of innovative medicines and medical technology to consider how to speed up access for NHS patients to cost-effective new diagnostics, medicines and devices.