Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps her Department is taking to help ensure that (a) NICE, (b) NHS England and (c) he pharmaceutical industry work together to increase patient access to new therapies for Graft-versus-host disease.

The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) is the independent body responsible for developing authoritative, evidence-based guidance for the National Health Service on whether new medicines represent a clinically- and cost-effective use of NHS resources. The NHS in England is legally required to make funding available in line with NICE’s recommendations within 90 days of a NICE decision, ensuring consistent access for all NHS patients in England to NICE recommended treatments.

NICE works closely with NHS England and pharmaceutical companies throughout the guidance development process to ensure that companies can put forward as strong a value proposition as possible. NICE can recommend most new medicines for use in the NHS in England. Health is a devolved matter and decisions on access to medicines in Scotland, Northern Ireland, and Wales are a matter for the devolved administrations.

NICE is currently evaluating the medicine belumosudil for treating chronic graft versus host disease after two or more lines of systemic therapy. NICE’s draft guidance does not recommend belumosudil but is subject to a public consultation and is not final guidance. NICE’s committee will carefully consider all evidence as well as comments received during the consultation in developing its final guidance.