Asked by: Daniel Zeichner (Labour - Cambridge)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department are taking to improve (a) the uptake of and (b) access to Covid-19 treatments.
Answered by Will Quince
In England, eligible patients who test positive for COVID-19 will be contacted by a clinician from a COVID Medicines Delivery Unit (CMDU) to discuss treatment suitability. The clinician will be responsible for assessing the patient and deciding which treatment option is most appropriate for them. Guidance has been provided to general practitioners, NHS 111 and hospital doctors to ensure information is available to support patients.
Currently, immunocompromised patients who form part of the high-risk cohort are eligible for receiving COVID-19 treatments within the community following a positive test. The Therapeutics Clinical Review Panel has been established to review the patient cohorts which could be eligible for COVID-19 therapies. On 30 May 2022 the Department published an Independent Advisory Group report which revised the high-risk cohort and included additional groups of patients. As a result of these changes and improved identification by the National Health Service, the cohort of eligible patients has grown to an estimated 1.8 million patients in the United Kingdom. Access to treatments could be extended further if evidence from clinical trials supports doing so. The PANORAMIC study aims to improve understanding of the effectiveness antivirals in preventing hospitalisation and/or death in a largely vaccinated population will provide data for the NHS to determine which patient groups could benefit most from antiviral treatments.
Asked by: Daniel Zeichner (Labour - Cambridge)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department plans to take to (a) improve (i) awareness of and (ii) access to Covid-19 antivirals for people who are eligible to receive them and (b) review the eligibility criteria for Covid-19 antivirals.
Answered by Will Quince
In England, eligible patients who test positive for COVID-19 will be contacted by a clinician from a COVID Medicines Delivery Unit (CMDU) to discuss treatment suitability. The clinician will be responsible for assessing the patient and deciding which treatment option is most appropriate for them. Guidance has been provided to general practitioners, NHS 111 and hospital doctors to ensure information is available to support patients.
Currently, immunocompromised patients who form part of the high-risk cohort are eligible for receiving COVID-19 treatments within the community following a positive test. The Therapeutics Clinical Review Panel has been established to review the patient cohorts which could be eligible for COVID-19 therapies. On 30 May 2022 the Department published an Independent Advisory Group report which revised the high-risk cohort and included additional groups of patients. As a result of these changes and improved identification by the National Health Service, the cohort of eligible patients has grown to an estimated 1.8 million patients in the United Kingdom. Access to treatments could be extended further if evidence from clinical trials supports doing so. The PANORAMIC study aims to improve understanding of the effectiveness antivirals in preventing hospitalisation and/or death in a largely vaccinated population will provide data for the NHS to determine which patient groups could benefit most from antiviral treatments.
Asked by: Daniel Zeichner (Labour - Cambridge)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department is taking steps to help streamline processes for future medical innovations so they are available in similar timeframes to covid-19 treatments.
Answered by Will Quince
The Government is committed to supporting timely patient access to promising and innovative new treatments. Our Life Science Vision published in 2021 set out our ambition to build on the scientific successes and ways of working from COVID-19 to tackle the biggest disease challenges.
The United Kingdom’s participation in Project Orbis and the creation of the Innovative Licensing and Access Pathway (ILAP) are already enabling the more rapid review and approval of promising new medicines. In addition, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence is introducing a more proportionate approach to appraisals that will create more flexibility in its medicine evaluation processes and speed up access for patients.
Asked by: Daniel Zeichner (Labour - Cambridge)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department are taking to learn from best practice used during (a) the Covid-19 vaccination programme and (b) the response to the Covid-19 pandemic.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
The United Kingdom’s vaccination programme, from research and development of vaccines against COVID-19 to the deployment to over 93% of the adult population aged 12 years old and over (as of 7 June 2022), has been one of the most successful and effective initiatives in the history of UK science and public administration. The Government is taking steps to learn from the best practice used during this programme.
The Centre for Pandemic Preparedness within the UK Health Security Agency is working with partners in Government, academia and industry to understand the findings from evaluation of COVID-19 policies and exercises to identify lessons we can learn from for future incidents. We will also review the evidence base underpinning different policies and identify gaps.
Asked by: Daniel Zeichner (Labour - Cambridge)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what discussions he has had with the Secretary of State for Business, Energy, and Industrial Strategy on the impact of the Voluntary Scheme for Branded Medicines Pricing Access on the life sciences sector.
Answered by Will Quince
Ministers in the Department engage regularly with their Ministerial counterparts on a range of issues, including those relating to the Voluntary Scheme for Branded Medicines Pricing Access.
Asked by: Daniel Zeichner (Labour - Cambridge)
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 potential impact of changes to the voluntary scheme for branded medicines pricing and access rebate rate on (a) investment in late-stage clinical trials and (b) patient access to new medicines.
Answered by Will Quince
We have not made a specific assessment of the potential impact of changes to 2019 Voluntary Scheme for Branded Medicines Pricing and Access (VPAS) payment percentages on late-stage clinical trials and access to new medicines. An assessment relevant to these issues was published in December 2022 on the impact of changes to payment percentages in the associated Statutory Scheme for Branded Medicines.
Changes to the VPAS payment percentages reflect the scheme working as intended to adjust for increased sales of branded medicines to the National Health Service and are below the rate projected when the Scheme was agreed with industry in 2018.
The NHS has delivered a record number of access agreements since VPAS was agreed including many world and European-first agreements. The NHS has delivered world-leading uptake of some of the most important cancer and rare disease drugs, while also agreeing deals for a number of new cell and gene therapies.
Asked by: Daniel Zeichner (Labour - Cambridge)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will make an assessment of the implications for his policies of the findings and recommendations on the health levelling up mission in the report by the East of England APPG and EELGA entitled Levelling up in the East of England - the East of England's progress towards the Government’s twelve levelling up missions; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Neil O'Brien
We welcome the report published by the East of England APPG and East of England LGA on levelling up in the East of England. The Government is committed to the Levelling Up Mission to improve Healthy Life Expectancy (HLE) by five years by 2035 and to narrow the gap by 2030. We are committed to supporting individuals to live healthier lives by improving access to and levelling-up health and care across the country. The Department continues to review how best to improve healthy life expectancy and further information will be available in due course.
Asked by: Daniel Zeichner (Labour - Cambridge)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to his Department's Government Food Strategy, published on 13 June 2022, what progress his Department has made in developing dedicated guidance materials for companies developing novel foods and processes; and when she plans to publish that guidance.
Answered by Neil O'Brien
The Food Standards Agency (FSA) has commissioned a wholesale review of the Novel Foods Regulatory Framework, identifying and critically evaluating a range of potential regulatory models, taking into account the UK regulatory landscape and drawing on international best practice and stakeholder views.
The review is due to be completed by spring 2023 which will help inform guidance for novel food applications and stakeholders, later in 2023.
The FSA is also working towards developing a new Regulated Products (RP) application system, which the FSA hopes to be in operation by Spring 2023. The new system will provide applicants more support at the front end of the service and there will be a number of steps prior to applicants submitting a new application to help them establish what information is essential for their application to progress. In addition, the development of a new landing page will provide more sophisticated step-by-step guidance to assist applicants and will offer direction to other FSA business areas should a RP application not be the most appropriate action.
Asked by: Daniel Zeichner (Labour - Cambridge)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to increase patient recruitment numbers in non-covid clinical trials to pre-pandemic levels.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
In May 2020, the National Institute for Health and Care Research issued a Restart Framework developed with stakeholders and the devolved administrations to support recommencing non-COVID-19 research activities, including patient recruitment.
In May 2021, a managed recovery approach was introduced to coordinate the recruitment to a sub-set of non-COVID-19 studies. This was intended to clear the path for other non-COVID studies paused or delayed in the early stages of the pandemic to return to the levels of recruitment that would normally be expected.
In March 2022, the Research Reset programme was launched, to request that research funders and sponsors review their study portfolios to assess the viability of delivery within existing capacity. The programme aims to focus resources on increasing recruitment to studies across all clinical areas, while ensuring that new studies can open and begin recruiting patients.
Asked by: Daniel Zeichner (Labour - Cambridge)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what progress he has made to (a) harness the potential of NHS health data for research purposes and (b) improve the interoperability of existing data sets.
Answered by Gillian Keegan - Secretary of State for Education
On 2 March 2022, the Department for Health and Social Care and the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy announced a joint investment of £200 million in data infrastructure for research and development. Over the next three years, this will create a National Health Service-wide health data research and innovation infrastructure which enhances care and sustains the health and care system. This includes making data available to approved researchers in a streamlined and secure way which protects privacy through an interoperable system of Trusted Research Environments. NHS Digital is working with suppliers to ensure that systems across health and care are interoperable.
Through the NHS Standard Contract, NHS Digital is ensuring a common ‘language’ to identify citizens, care settings and the treatments provided. All data collected nationally and made available to research receives rigorous design to ensure it aligns to the standards in the Contract. The information standard for each dataset is incorporated into the requirements definition mandated on health and care providers.