Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if his Department will review the medicines and treatment appraisal system to assess its readiness for evaluating cell and gene-based blood cancer treatments.

The National Institute of Health and Care Excellence (NICE) is the independent body responsible for developing authoritative, evidence-based recommendations for the National Health Service on whether new medicines represent a clinically and cost-effective use of resources.

The NICE has evaluated and been able to recommend a number of CAR-T therapies, a type of cell therapy for the treatment of blood cancers, that are now available to NHS patients.

The NICE is responsible for the methods and processes it uses to develop its recommendations and concluded a comprehensive review of the methods and processes it uses for health technology evaluation in January 2022. The NICE carried out the review through extensive engagement with stakeholders, including Department officials. The NICE introduced a number of changes that make its methods fairer, faster, and more consistent, and appropriate to the evaluation of emerging new technologies, such as cell and gene therapies.

The NICE is monitoring the impact of the changes following the methods review and has committed to considering modular updates to its methods and processes in the future.