Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how much his Department spent on medicines for hepatitis C treatment in each of the last three financial years.

Information on spend by the National Health Service in primary and secondary care is in the table.

Medicines for the treatment of hepatitis C have been defined as all medicines contained within British National Formulary section 5.3.3.4 - chronic hepatitis C. In addition, peginterferon alfa, ribavirin and interferon alfa have also been included as they have been recommended in National Institute for Health and Care excellence technology appraisals for use in treating hepatitis C.

Since some drugs are prescribed to treat more than one condition, it may not be possible to separate the different conditions for which a drug may have been prescribed and therefore figures may include costs from prescriptions of these drugs other than for hepatitis C.

This is the cost of the medicines at NHS list price and not necessarily the price paid. It does not take account of discounts, dispensing costs, fees or prescription charges income.

Source:

Prescription Cost Analysis (PCA) provided by the Health and Social Care Information Centre (primary care)

Hospital Pharmacy Audit Index (HPAI) provided by IMS Health (secondary care)