Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department has taken to ensure that (a) funding from the public purse for medical research is transparent; and (b) that medicines produced a result of funding from the public purse are affordable.

The National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) is funded through the Department to improve the health and wealth of the nation through research. Full and open access to the knowledge generated by research is of the utmost importance to the NIHR. The NIHR commitment to transparency, the NIHR Journals Library, open access policy, and endorsement of the World Health Organization joint statement on the disclosure of results ensures that ideas and knowledge derived from publicly funded research are made available and accessible for public use.

The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence technology appraisal guidance and the associated funding requirement plays an important role in ensuring that patients have access to cost-effective new medicines, including medicines developed from public research.

The recent Government and partner bodies response to the Accelerated Access Review sets out how we will work with industry and the health system to create a streamlined and sophisticated approvals system so that cost-effective breakthrough products – be they drugs, devices, digital or diagnostics – can get into the National Health Service as fast as possible.