Question to the Department for International Development:

To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what steps her Department has taken to ensure value for money when procuring medicines and other health technologies as part of its bilateral and multilateral spending on health.

The UK stands as one of the world’s largest funders of essential health commodities for developing countries, largely due to our investment in multilateral organisations such as the Global Fund and Gavi, the Vaccines Alliance.

We work hard to ensure that our bilateral and multilateral partners secure maximum value for money in their purchasing of health commodities through best commercial practice, including international competitive tendering, and partnerships with the private sector. DFID’s work in this area has unlocked huge value gains across a number of key health commodity markets. For example, the cost of a year’s supply of antiretrovirals for HIV/AIDS has fallen by 50% since 2010. By the end of 2015, 17 million patients across the globe were on antiretroviral treatment, compared with 0.7 million in 2000.