Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to reverse the long-term decline in the amount spent on medicines as a percentage of the NHS budget.

We continue to support the United Kingdom’s world leading life sciences sector through investment, innovation and reform as set out in our Life Sciences Sector Plan and 10-Year Health Plan, through which we committed to accelerating growth in net spend on innovative medicines to unlock the potential for patients.

As announced as part of our world-leading agreement with the United States, we will increase the amount which the UK pays for life-changing medicines by 25% through changes to the way that medicines are evaluated by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE), including an increase to the NICE cost-effectiveness threshold. In this way, we are increasing the value that we place on innovations that deliver improvements to patient health, ensuring faster patient access for vital medicines for cancer, rare diseases and other conditions.

We are giving a clear signal that we want to bring innovative medicines to National Health Service patients, encouraging the life sciences industry to prioritise the UK as an early launch market, and help get the newest available treatments to those who need them.