Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent assessment has been made of the effectiveness of NICE’s methodology for assessing combination therapies.

In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) adapted its priorities to support the National Health Service, local authorities and the wider health and social care sector. In March, NICE paused the publication of topics that were not COVID-19-related or therapeutically critical to avoid distracting the NHS at a time of unprecedented pressure. However, on 1 June NICE began a phased restart of publishing guidance that had previously been paused.

All cancer appraisals were identified as being therapeutically critical and kept to their planned timelines. NICE is currently developing guidance on eight technologies for treating multiple myeloma and leukaemia, and the timescales for these are available at the following link:

https://www.nice.org.uk/search?om=[{%22gst%22:[%22In%20development%22]}]&ps=15&q=blood+cancer&sp=on

NICE is an independent body and is responsible for the methods it uses in developing its guidance. NICE is currently undertaking a review of its methods for health technology evaluation.