Trastuzumab Deruxtecan: Northern Ireland

(asked on 4th October 2024) - View Source

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will have discussions with the Northern Ireland Health Minister on access to Enhertu in Northern Ireland.


Answered by
Karin Smyth Portrait
Karin Smyth
Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
This question was answered on 11th October 2024

My Rt Hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, has no plans to speak to the Minister of Health for Northern Ireland about the specific issue of access to the medicine Enhertu in Northern Ireland. Decisions on the availability of individual treatments to National Health Service patients in Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland are for the devolved administrations.

Decisions on whether new medicines should be routinely funded by the NHS in England are taken by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) on the basis of an evaluation of a treatment’s costs and benefits. The NICE’s methods are internationally respected, and have been developed through extensive work with industry, academics, and the public to ensure they appropriately capture the costs and benefits, and best reflect social values. These are very difficult decisions to make, and it is important that they are made independently and on the basis of the available evidence.

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