Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent steps his Department is taking to increase accessibility for cell and gene therapies.

The Government is committed to supporting access to clinically and cost effective new treatments for National Health Service patients, including for rare, genetic and undiagnosed conditions. The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) is the independent body responsible for developing authoritative, evidence-based recommendations for the NHS on whether new medicines represent a clinically and cost-effective use of resources. The NHS in England is legally required to fund treatments recommended by NICE, usually within three months of final guidance. This means that any treatment positively appraised by NICE should be available for clinicians to offer to all their eligible patients.

NHS England has struck commercial agreements with the manufacturers of several cell and gene therapies that have enabled NICE to recommend them for routine NHS use or through the Cancer Drugs Fund. These treatments are now available for the treatment of all NHS patients.

The Innovative Medicines Fund was launched in June 2022 and will allow patients to benefit from early access to the most promising medicines where there is too much uncertainty for NICE to be able to recommend routine funding. This will further support the rapid introduction of effective new medicines for the benefit of NHS patients.