Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what proportion of the ringfenced £340 million budget for the Innovative Medicines Fund has been spent in each year since its launch in June 2022.

The Innovative Medicines Fund (IMF) was established to provide a funding mechanism for promising non-cancer medicines recommended by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) for a period of managed access to address uncertainties in the evidence base. Up to £340 million has been available each financial year to support funding of medicines through the IMF. Expenditure in 2023/24 was £2 million.

The relatively low level of expenditure within the IMF for 2023/24 reflects the high proportion of topics assessed by NICE as having potential for managed access which have gone on to secure a positive recommendation for routine commissioning, therefore bypassing the need for further data collection and reappraisal through the IMF.

The remainder of the IMF budget is used to support pressures in the overall specialised commissioning budget and is reported as part of the overall financial position.