Asked by: Baroness Prosser (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the answer by Lord O'Shaughnessy on 7 June (HL Deb, col 1405), what assessment they have made of the credibility of the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) process to approve drugs for use by NHS England; and what discussions they have held with NHS England on the subject of the application of NICE standards for Ibrutinib.
Answered by Lord O'Shaughnessy
The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) technology appraisal methods and processes are internationally respected and have been developed through periodic review, including extensive engagement with stakeholders, to ensure that they remain fit for purpose.
Departmental officials and I have met with NHS England to discuss the treatment criteria relating to the use of ibrutinib for the treatment of chronic lymphocytic leukaemia (CLL). NHS England has advised that it develops treatment criteria for cancer and other high cost drugs to support implementation of NICE guidance and to ensure approved treatments are available as intended, with access funded consistently across the country. These criteria are developed by relevant expert clinical advisers, drawn from NHS England’s 42 Clinical Reference Groups (CRGs). These CRGs have been established to support clinical commissioning across the entire specialised commissioning portfolio.
NHS England has recently completed a review of the treatment criteria related to the use of ibrutinib for the treatment of CLL which concluded that the criteria should be amended such that ibrutinib can be made available as a treatment option for those patients who have had remission durations of three years or more with their preceding line of therapy. Ibrutinib is now available for National Health Service patients in line with the amended treatment criteria.