Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government what plans they have to manage the NHS provision of biologic medications and other high-cost treatments, particularly to avoid inequality between patients under different integrated care boards.

The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) makes evidence-based recommendations for the National Health Service in England on whether new medicines, including biologics, should be routinely funded by the NHS based on an assessment of their clinical and cost-effectiveness.

The NICE evaluates all new medicines and significant licence extensions for existing medicines, and NHS England and the integrated care boards are legally required to fund the medicines recommended in a NICE appraisal, usually within three months of final guidance. The NICE’s evaluations and the associated funding requirement ensures that patients are consistently able to benefit from clinically and cost-effective medicines wherever they live in England.