Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether the NHS Commercial Medicines Unit has procured a new Hepatitis C treatment in the last 12 months; and if so, what was the cost.

The Department’s Commercial Medicines Unit has continued to procure medicines for hepatitis C as part of a nationally agreed programme, established in 2015, which establishes framework agreements.

The Unit undertakes a six-monthly rolling regional tender programme on behalf of National Health Service trusts in England, which includes all the new hepatitis C medicines on the market at the time of tendering. Regional annual framework agreements are then established for use by NHS trusts.

The costs associated with the regional tender programme are not separately identifiable.