Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of whether the Voluntary Scheme for Branded Medicines Pricing and Access has caused a reduction in the supply of biosimilar medicines, and any associated impact on (1) patient outcomes, (2) NHS finances in the short term, and (3) the ability to make cost-savings in the longer term.

The Department recognises the important role that biosimilars and generics play in ensuring affordability, patient access, and supply resilience. We have not seen convincing evidence that the voluntary scheme for branded medicines pricing and access has had an impact on medicines supply including biosimilars, given available mitigations such as provisions in the scheme for companies to apply for price increases should supply of products be otherwise uneconomical.