Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the UK Government’s response to the resolution on improving the transparency of markets at the 72nd World Health Assembly in Geneva on the ability of people in the UK to access medicines.

The United Kingdom participates in various transparency initiatives, including the European Integrated Price Information Database, the World Health Organization’s Pharmaceutical Pricing Reimbursement Information Network, and the Global Fund Price and Quality Database. The UK has a long-established and globally-recognised track record of assessing the price of new, innovative medicines according to their clinical value, rather than pricing by their development costs or international reference prices.

We believe that is the right approach: ensuring the development of the best medicines in areas of high unmet need are rewarded. The Government could not, therefore, agree to a resolution which had the potential to increase medicines prices and reduce patient access, by reducing the ability of the National Health Service to undertake commercial negotiations with pharmaceutical companies on the price of new medicines.

The approach taken by the NHS has meant we were the first country in Europe to offer innovative CAR-T therapies, alongside many other new medicines.