Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what progress he has made on negotiations with Vertex Pharmaceuticals on access to Orkambi and Symkevi in England.

NHS England and NHS Improvement have been leading negotiations with Vertex Pharmaceuticals and have made a revised and improved offer to Vertex that would provide immediate funding for Orkambi and Symkevi in advance of a positive assessment by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE). This would be in addition to expanded access to Kalydeco which is already funded by the National Health Service for certain patients. However, Vertex has refused to engage with the NICE process and is yet to accept the NHS England and NHS Improvement offer.

The Government fully supports NICE and NHS England and NHS Improvement in seeking to ensure access for patients to effective and innovative medicines at a price that represents value to the NHS, and it is not for Ministers to intervene in this process. The Department’s approach remains to strongly urge Vertex to accept NHS England and NHS Improvement’s generous offer, but in the absence of a deal, we have asked NHS England and NHS Improvement to continue to explore all options to ensure patients can access treatments as soon as possible.

The Secretary of State for Health and Social Care will be meeting the Chief Executive of Vertex again in the coming weeks to discuss what the barriers are to an agreement and how the situation can be resolved.