Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, which industry partners were consulted as part of the process for the development of options to replace VPAG under the US-UK pharmaceutical deal.

The arrangement between the United States and United Kingdom has been received positively by industry so far and will continue supporting greater investment in UK life sciences.

The Government and the UK life sciences industry have launched a Joint Taskforce to drive innovation in the UK’s commercial environment for medicines. As part of the delivery of the 10-Year Health Plan and Life Science Sector Plan, the Government has established a sprint process with the pharmaceutical sector to consider options for accelerating progress towards the Government’s ambitions for the UK being the third most important Life Science economy by 2035.

The process will involve key agencies such as NHS England and the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence and will engage with charitable and patient groups to ensure a broad range of views are considered. Industry is represented by the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry and a sample of their members companies. A full list of these companies is provided below.

The Joint Taskforce process will not represent formal voluntary scheme negotiations but acts as a precursor to develop options for the future of the voluntary scheme and look at the broader medicines pricing system.

With regard to the pilots, the Arrangement commits that the pilots should be agreed by 30 June this year and be launched by 1 September. The sprint process to consider options, including pilots, continues as planned. Industry sprint representatives are as follows:

• The Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry;
• AbbVie;
• AstraZeneca;
• Bristol Myers Squibb;
• GlaxoSmithKline;
• Eli Lilly;
• Pfizer;
• Roche Products;
• Sanofi; and
• UCB Pharma.