Meeting of the Parliament 20 June 2018
I welcome the opportunity to take part in this debate on access to new medicines. The member who lodged the motion and all of us in the chamber want to achieve the best results for all sufferers of rare conditions who require orphan, ultra-orphan and end-of-life medication.
For the sufferers and their families, the importance of the issue cannot be overstated. I join other members in paying tribute to those who campaign tirelessly on the issue. As MSPs, we all have cases where access to new medicines would transform the lives of individuals, so it is critical to ensure that robust, independent processes are in place to bring into use new drugs.
The Montgomery review commissioned by the Scottish Government to look into the issue made a number of recommendations, including on datasets, definitions, negotiations, new ultra-orphan medicines pathways and arrangements on funding, which the Government has confirmed that it will be implementing.
The Montgomery review concludes that access to end-of-life, orphan and ultra-orphan medicines has increased through steps taken by the Government, including the use of individual patient treatment requests and peer approved clinical system packs. Indeed, the percentage of new drugs approved has increased from 48 per cent in the period in 2011 to 2013 to 79 per cent over the past three years as a result of investment and reforms to approval processes.
The Scottish Government has put in place the new medicines fund to provide additional support to NHS boards to meet the costs of the drugs, and it commits to continuing to use all the funding from the pharmaceutical price regulation scheme rebate to support the NMF.
The Scottish Medicines Consortium will introduce a new ultra-orphan medicines pathway, with an option to recommend a medicine on an interim basis.