PARLIAMENTARY WRITTEN QUESTION
Chronic Illnesses: Medical Treatments (19 July 2022)

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the Answer of 29 June 2022 to Question 23448 on Chronic Illnesses: Medical Treatments, whether his Department has undertaken a comparative assessment of international access to innovative medicines for people with long-term health conditions.

Asked by:
Feryal Clark (Labour)

No specific assessment has been made. However, the Office for Life Sciences produces the annual ‘Life Science Competitiveness Indicators’ which includes international comparisons on the percentage of new medicines available, time to availability for new medicines and uptake of new medicines recommended by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence, which measures relative adoption of new medicines in the United Kingdom in comparison to other countries.

In 2021, NHS England published the International Comparison Medicines Uptake report on treatments for cystic fibrosis, severe asthma, varenicline-assisted smoking cessation and hepatitis C, which aims to establish a methodology in order to make international comparisons of medicines uptake.

Answered by:
James Morris (Conservative)
26 July 2022