Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what discussions his Department has had discussions with (a) NICE and (b) Servier on the barriers to approving Vorasidenib for use by the NHS for the treatment of low glade glioma.

Department officials regularly speak with colleagues in the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) to discuss a range of issues, including the status of individual appraisals. As NICE is an independent body, it would not be appropriate for the Department to interfere in the development of NICE’s recommendations on specific medicines. The Department has had no discussions about the appraisal of vorasidenib with Servier.

NICE recently published draft guidance for consultation on the use of vorasidenib for treating astrocytoma or oligodendroglioma with IDH1 or IDH2 mutations after surgery in people aged 12 years and over. The consultation closed on 4 November 2025 and NICE’s independent appraisal committee is scheduled to meet on 20 November 2025 to consider its recommendations in light of the consultation responses.

It is important that we have a system in place for making evidence-based decisions on whether new medicines should be routinely funded by the National Health Service, based on an objective assessment of their costs and benefits.