Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he is taking steps to speed up the drug approval process for new metastatic breast cancer treatments.

The Government is committed to supporting timely patient access to clinically- and cost-effective new drugs, including for metastatic breast cancer.

The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) and NHS England are working closely together to ensure that there is a joined-up, timely approach to supporting access to new medicines for National Health Service patients, including those licensed through Project Orbis and the Innovative Licensing and Access Pathway. NICE is also able to make recommendations through the cancer drugs fund (CDF), which has benefitted over 88,000 patients as of March 2023. The CDF has allowed patients with metastatic breast cancer to access new medicines like trastuzumab, deruxtecan and palbociclib, while allowing for the collection of further data on their clinical- and cost-effectiveness to inform a final NICE recommendation.