Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment his Department has made of the potential merits of using models that de-link the cost of research and development from the price of the final product and the volume of sales, as set out in the 2016 UN Political Declaration of the High-Level Meeting of the General Assembly on antimicrobial resistance, to ensure that new diagnostics, medicines and tools created are accessible and affordable.

The 2016 United Nations political declaration on antimicrobial resistance (AMR) acknowledged the importance of delinking the cost of investment in research and development on AMR from the price and volume of sales to facilitate equitable and affordable access to new products and encouraged governments to explore innovative approaches.

It is critical that the National Health Service makes the best use of its resources. Any payment model must therefore be based on a robust evaluation of the value that a new antimicrobial product brings to patients and the public as a whole. The assessment of how much value a new antibiotic brings is highly complex and will vary considerably from one product to another.

In the United Kingdom, NHS England and the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) are leading work to test innovative models that pay companies based primarily on a NICE led health technology assessment of their value to the NHS as opposed to the volumes used. This has the potential to both promote good antimicrobial stewardship and provide a much-needed incentive for the development of new antimicrobial agents that will, over time, provide value for the NHS.

The test will be subject to robust evaluation before considering any wider change to purchasing policy. The UK represents only a small part of the global market for these drugs and we want to send a signal to the rest of the world that there are workable models to achieve the right sort of incentives for these vital medicines.