Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment she has made of whether the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence's cost-effectiveness methodology adequately reflects the particular circumstances of medicines for rare diseases, including treatments that address an underlying physiological deficiency rather than its symptoms.

The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) has been able to recommend many medicines licensed for the treatment of rare diseases for use on the National Health Service where companies engage constructively in the process and price their medicines fairly. NICE keeps its methods and processes under review to ensure that they remain fit for purpose.

NICE will be undertaking a research project on valuing rare disease medicines through its Health Technology Assessment Innovation Laboratory.