Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether she has had discussions with (a) NICE and (b) Bristol Myers Squibb on restarting the NICE appraisals process for luspatercept (Reblozyl).

Departmental officials regularly discuss a range of issues with colleagues in the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE), including on access to medicines such as luspatercept (Reblozyl). The Department has had no discussions with Bristol Myers Squibb on this specific topic.

Luspatercept has a licence in the United Kingdom for the treatment of adult patients with transfusion-dependent anaemia due to very low, and low and intermediate-risk myelodysplastic syndrome with ring sideroblasts, who had an unsatisfactory response to, or are ineligible for, erythropoietin-based therapy. The NICE had to terminate its appraisal of luspatercept for treating anaemia caused by myelodysplastic syndromes because the manufacturer did not provide an evidence submission. The NICE will review this decision if the company decides to make a submission.