Oral Answers to Questions

Alan Mak Excerpts

Tuesday 19th June 2018 Commons Chamber

[Luke Graham (Ochil and South Perthshire) (Con)]

5. What steps his Department is taking to support UK life sciences and medical research.

[Alan Mak (Havant) (Con)]

22. What steps his Department is taking to support UK life sciences and medical research.

[The Secretary of State for Health and Social Care (Mr Jeremy Hunt)]

The life sciences sector is critical to the UK economy, which is why we support it with a £1 billion annual grant through the National Institute for Health Research.

[Mr Hunt]

I am happy to do that. The life sciences industry is critical to Scotland, and Scotland’s role is critical to the UK. We all remember Dolly the sheep being pioneered in Edinburgh University, and last week’s announcement of a new centre in Renfrewshire is another good example of the great things happening in Scotland.

[Alan Mak]

The use of big data and artificial intelligence in medical research has the potential to save hundreds of thousands of lives. Will my right hon. Friend consider setting up data hubs and support the full digitisation of patient records?

[Mr Hunt]

My hon. Friend is very knowledgeable about that area. We have announced the creation of a set of digital innovation hubs, and perhaps we can broaden those to turn them into the hubs that he thinks would be a good idea.

Oral Answers to Questions

Alan Mak Excerpts

Tuesday 8th May 2018 Commons Chamber

[Steve Brine]

This issue has received a lot of publicity in recent weeks. My noble Friend Lord O’Shaughnessy and I wrote to Vertex following that debate and asked it to be reasonable and continue, with vigour, its negotiations with NHS England. That letter was made public, as was the company’s actually quite positive response last week. I urge the company again to come to a reasonable conclusion.

[Alan Mak (Havant) (Con)]

Healthcare delivered by app and other new technologies is increasingly popular with patients. Will my right hon. Friend undertake to ensure that the NHS fully explores the possibilities of new technologies when delivering front-line services?

[Mr Hunt]

I will absolutely do that. I congratulate my hon. Friend on the excellent report that he published last week on that very topic. We want to be the first country in the world where all patients can access their own medical record through an app.

Oral Answers to Questions

Alan Mak Excerpts

Tuesday 20th March 2018 Commons Chamber

The Secretary of State was asked—

[Alan Mak (Havant) (Con)]

1. What progress his Department is making on implementing the Government's Life Sciences Industrial Strategy.

[The Secretary of State for Health and Social Care (Mr Jeremy Hunt)]

The UK has a fantastic life sciences industry. As a result of the sector deal announced in December, a further £210 million is being invested in research and £162 million in medical manufacturing.

[Alan Mak]

Patient outcomes can be improved by sharing big datasets and integrating new technologies, such as artificial intelligence, across the NHS. Will my right hon. Friend update the House on the NHS’s plans to digitise and adapt to the fourth industrial revolution?

[Mr Hunt]

I am looking forward to reading my hon. Friend’s report into this topic in May. We are a bit of a curate’s egg in this country. We have five of the world’s top 10 medical research universities and more than double the number of Nobel prizes of France, so we do incredibly well on the research side, but some of our hospitals are still running on paper, which is totally inappropriate. That is why we are determined to implement the Wachter review.

 Orkambi and Cystic Fibrosis

Alan Mak Excerpts

Monday 19th March 2018 Westminster Hall

[Alan Mak (Havant) (Con)]

My constituency, and that of my right hon. Friend the Member for Portsmouth North (Penny Mordaunt), were among the top three constituencies for people signing the petition. Will my hon. Friend join me in calling on the Minister to get Vertex, the NHS and NICE to continue their negotiations, because time is of the essence?

[Paul Scully]

My hon. Friend is absolutely right. It is important, because every day counts for people who have the condition. I said that cystic fibrosis cannot be caught, but neither can it be cured. The people who have cystic fibrosis now will be the same people who have it for the rest of their lives, which basically means that the supply of Orkambi would have a fixed price. We know pretty well, within a margin, how much we would spend on this lifelong treatment.

The current evaluation process turns on an incremental cost-efficiency ratio, which is the total additional lifetime cost of a treatment divided by the additional quality-adjusted life years resulting from that treatment. For acute conditions, the additional quality-adjusted life years resulting from the shorter-term treatments moderate the efficiency ratio, even if the drug is expensive. However, because drugs for chronic and lifelong conditions have to be taken every day for life, the cost of the treatment prevents that downward moderation. Basically, it is easier, under the NICE appraisal system, for medicines for acute conditions to attain a more favourable cost-effectiveness outcome than for innovative medications for chronic conditions, like Orkambi. It is basically a one-size system.

We then have to take into account section 13G of the National Health Service Act 2006, as amended by the Health and Social Care Act 2012, which requires NHS England to have regard to the need to reduce inequalities in health outcomes. Those two imbalances in the system need to be looked at if we are to have a system that is far fairer for people with illnesses such as cystic fibrosis.