Medical Treatments

(asked on 12th December 2014) - View Source

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of allowing two Patient Access Schemes for one treatment; and if he will make a statement.


Answered by
George Freeman Portrait
George Freeman
This question was answered on 17th December 2014

Whilst we recognise there are benefits to be derived from Patient Access Schemes (PAS), both the 2009 and 2014 Pharmaceutical Price Regulation Schemes (PPRS), negotiated with the United Kingdom pharmaceutical industry, set out that PAS should be the exception rather than the rule. It is important that PAS are operationally manageable for the National Health Service, and any burden for the NHS should be proportionate to the benefits of the PAS for the NHS and patients.

The 2009 and 2014 schemes set out the Department’s and the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry’s commitment to ensure that the cumulative burden on all parties involved in the operation of PAS is manageable. The PPRS recognises that it is reasonable for the Department to take this issue into account when considering the viability of individual PAS proposals.

The 2014 PPRS states that the Department is unlikely to agree more than one PAS for a single product because of the complexity this would introduce for the NHS.

Reticulating Splines