National Institute for Health and Care Excellence

(asked on 4th January 2022) - View Source

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the impact of operational challenges faced by NICE on its ability to deliver timely patient access to new medicines.


Answered by
Edward Argar Portrait
Edward Argar
Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
This question was answered on 11th January 2022

The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) is committed to publishing draft recommendations on new medicines around the time of licensing, with final guidance within three months of licensing wherever possible. The Department holds regular accountability meetings with NICE on a range of topics, including capacity issues. NICE delivers timely guidance on new medicines in the vast majority of cases and expects to continue to do so.

Project Orbis has been established to allow participating partners, including the United Kingdom, to review and approve applications for promising cancer treatments efficiently. The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency, NICE and NHS England and NHS Improvement are ensuring an integrated, timely approach to access new products, including those licensed through Project Orbis. NHS England and NHS Improvement and NICE have agreed principles to allow potential interim access ahead of NICE’s guidance where timely guidance is not anticipated, which has supported early patient access for a number of medicines licensed through Project Orbis.

Reticulating Splines