Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to Trigger 1 of Specialised Commissioning Drugs Briefing: Spring 2018, published by NHS England, what assessment he has made of the effect of the faster adoption of best value medicines requirement on the procurement of Extended Half Life factor VIII products; and what factor VIII blood products will be covered by that CQUIN.

NHS England, through the Commercial Medicines Unit (CMU), undertakes national tenders which allow all companies who produce plasma, recombinant and extended half-life factor VIII products to submit prices to be included in the national pricing framework. The aim is to deliver access to a range of treatments to meet individual patient need whilst supporting the use of clinically appropriate lowest cost options to achieve the clinical outcomes required.

The aim of trigger 1 of the Medicines Optimisation Commissioning for Quality and Innovation (CQUIN) is to support faster adoption of prioritised best value medicines and treatment regimens as they become available. The factor VIII blood products included in the CQUIN are those from the CMU factor VIII framework which was awarded in July 2018.

There is regular liaison between the CMU and commissioners in NHS England to ensure that the best value products list included in the CQUIN is as up to date as possible.