Rare Diseases: Medical Treatments

(asked on 13th July 2020) - View Source

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they have taken to promote alternative treatments to intravenous immunoglobulin for patients suffering from rare and genetic diseases.


Answered by
Lord Bethell Portrait
Lord Bethell
This question was answered on 27th July 2020

The Government is committed to improving the lives of those affected by rare disease and continues to implement the commitments made in the UK Strategy for Rare Diseases.

NHS England and NHS Improvement specialised commissioning are in the process of reviewing all the indications for use in the Clinical Guidelines for Immunoglobulin Use (2011).

NHS England and NHS Improvement have published commissioning criteria which recommend alternative commissioned treatments to immunoglobulin where it is clinically appropriate, for example, the use of rituximab biosimilar agents in the treatment of Myasthenia Gravis.

NHS England and NHS Improvement have also worked to develop policies for alternatives such as Allogeneic Haematopoietic Stem Cell Transplant for Primary Immunodeficiencies (all ages) where a transplant is clinically indicated.

Reticulating Splines