Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the decision by the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency on 22 August 2024 to licence lecanemab for patients with early stage Alzheimer's disease, what discussions he has had with NHS England on plans to make (a) lecanemab and (b) other anti-amyloid therapies available to patients.

Department officials have had a number of conversations with colleagues in NHS England about their plans to support the adoption of any licensed and National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) recommended treatment for Alzheimer’s disease.

The NICE is currently developing guidance for the National Health Service on the use of several potential new medicines for the treatment of Alzheimer’s disease, and is currently consulting on its draft guidance for the use of lecanemab. These are very difficult decisions to make, and it is right that they are taken independently, on the basis of the available evidence of costs and benefits. We understand how disappointing the NICE’s draft guidance will be to all those affected, but we need to make sure that the resources of the NHS are spent in a way that provides the most health benefit to society. The NICE’s draft recommendations are now open to consultation, and the NICE will take the comments received fully into account when developing its final guidance.