Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment his Department has made of the potential impact of the voluntary scheme for branded medicines pricing and access on (a) development of and (b) access to (i) Graft-versus-Host disease therapies, (ii) CAR-T therapies and (iii) other innovative therapies for rare conditions.

The voluntary scheme for branded medicines pricing and access (VPAS) includes strong commercial incentives to launch new products in the form of freedom of list pricing and exemptions from payments for innovative medicines containing a new active substance. At the mid-scheme review for the 2019 VPAS, the Department and NHS England concluded that the scheme had been effective in supporting patient access to innovative medicines.

The terms of the successor to VPAS are subject to ongoing confidential negotiations. Supporting patient access to innovative medicines will continue to be one of the scheme’s objectives, alongside ensuring the affordability of National Health Service spend on medicines and supporting the life sciences sector and the wider economy.