Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps his Department has taken to act upon the research by the National Institute for Health Research into idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis.

The Department’s National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) is funding a systematic review of evidence on the benefits, harms and costs of treatments for idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF). The report is expected to be published in the journal Health Technology Assessment in January 2015.

The NIHR Clinical Research Network (CRN) provides support to help the life sciences industry set up and deliver large multi-centre clinical trials in the National Health Service, across a wide range of disease and therapeutic areas. The CRN is currently hosting trials assessing the efficacy and safety of lebrikizumab and simtuzumab in patients with IPF. The CRN is also recruiting patients to a pilot study seeking to test whether omeprazole can reduce cough in patients with IPF.