Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment his Department has made of the effectiveness of the Innovative Medicines Fund in providing access to non-cancer medicines.

The Innovative Medicines Fund was launched in June 2022, building on the successful Cancer Drugs Fund and supporting patient access to the most promising new medicines while further evidence is collected on their use to address clinical uncertainty.

Since the fund’s establishment in June 2022, over 1,050 patients have been registered to receive treatment with 16 products treating 16 different conditions. NHS England has made interim funding available via the fund for 14 products, and two products have been recommended for managed access across three indications in the fund.

A high proportion of topics assessed by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence as having potential for managed access have gone on to secure a positive recommendation for routine commissioning, bypassing the need for further data collection and reappraisal through the fund. The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence’s overall approval rate for non-cancer medicines is very high, with 88% of all of medicines it has evaluated recommended for National Health Service funding for some of or all the eligible patient population.