Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what plans NHS England has to support patients with cirrhosis to access treatment for hepatitis C after the waiver for the implementation period of National Institute for Health and Care Excellence guidance for the medicine sofosbuvir.

NHS England has advised that it is currently developing interim proposals to allow selected patients with cirrhosis to have early access to some of the new drugs that are expected to be available to treat hepatitis C later in 2015. NHS England aims to have these interim policies in place by the first half of 2015.

These will provide access to treatment in advance of the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence’s final technology appraisal guidance on these products which is expected to be published shortly.