Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the Answer of 18 June 2025 to Question 54542 on Drug Prices, how many of the commercial arrangements involving indications-specific pricing were for indications for (a) rare and (b) ultra-rare cancers.

Between January 2020 and March 2025, NHS England entered into 62 commercial agreements involving indication-specific pricing for cancer indications. Of these:

• 60 were for indications classified as rare; and
• of those 60, two were for indications classified as ultra-rare.

NHS England determines whether a cancer indication is considered rare or ultra-rare based on the incidence of the eligible patient population for a given National Institute for Health and Care Excellence Technology Appraisal, rather than the overall incidence of the broader cancer type. The following definitions have been applied:

• rare, with fewer than six cases per 100,000 population per year; and
• ultra-rare, with one case per 1,000,000 population per year or fewer.