Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of alternative mechanisms to appraise the use of Orkambi in the NHS.

The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) published final technology appraisal guidance on 27 July 2016 which does not recommend Orkambi (lumacaftor-ivacaftor) for treating cystic fibrosis homozygous for the F508del mutation.

In the absence of positive NICE technology appraisal guidance, any funding decisions should be made by National Health Service commissioners, based on an assessment of the available evidence and on the basis of an individual patient’s clinical circumstances.