Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to help ensure equitable access to Exjade for Myelodysplastic Syndrome patients across the country.

Exjade (Deferasirox) is not licensed by the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency to treat Myelodysplastic Syndrome. Clinicians are able to prescribe any product on the National Health Service they consider necessary for the treatment of their patient, unless it is listed in Schedules 1 or 2 to the National Health Service (General Medical Services Contracts) (Prescription of Drugs etc.) Regulations 2004. This is known as off-label prescribing.

The Department expects prescribers to satisfy themselves that the medicines they consider appropriate for their patients can be safely prescribed and that they take account of appropriate national guidance on clinical effectiveness. This prescribing decision is subject to the treatment being funded by the relevant commissioner.