Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps are being taken to update and evolve value assessments of drugs, medical devices and diagnostics, as recommended in the Life Sciences Industrial Strategy.

The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) is committed to playing its part in delivering the vision set out in the Life Sciences Industrial Strategy. Ensuring that appraisals are fit for purpose in a fast-changing sector is critical. NICE has recently taken steps to do this by introducing changes to its processes to support faster access to the most effective treatments, while addressing affordability issues. In addition, NICE has recently consulted on further changes to streamline its technology appraisal processes so that it is better able to develop new guidance on innovative drugs and medical technologies.

As set out in the response to the Accelerated Access Review, we are also introducing a new Accelerated Access Pathway, to streamline regulatory and market access decisions for a small number of products, getting breakthrough products that we believe will be truly transformative to patients even more quickly.