Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he has had discussions with NICE on its Final Draft Guidance which does not recommend CAR-T therapy for relapsed or refractory Mantle Cell Lymphoma.

Department officials regularly discuss a range of issues with colleagues in the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE), including in relation to the development of guidance on individual products.

NICE develops its recommendations on new medicines independently on the basis of a thorough assessment of the available evidence and through extensive engagement with interested parties. NICE is currently re-evaluating the CAR-T therapy brexucabtagene autoleucel (Tecartus) to determine whether it can be recommended for routine National Health Service use, taking into account real-world evidence generated through its use in the Cancer Drugs Fund.