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Health and Sport Committee 01 March 2016

01 Mar 2016 · S4 · Health and Sport Committee

Item of business

Access to New Medicines

Robison, Shona SNP Dundee City East Watch on SPTV

I am very pleased to be here this morning to talk to the committee about access to new medicines. As we enter the last few weeks of the parliamentary session, the committee should be very proud of its work in that area and the achievements that have been made in increasing access to new medicines in Scotland. It is worth taking a moment to run through the main changes that have been made in the past two years—indeed, it is quite a list. The SMC now holds its meetings in public, and pharmaceutical company representatives are now part of those meetings; there is a new framework for considering ultra-orphan medicines; the patient and clinician engagement process has been introduced, together with additional opportunities for companies to put forward a patient access scheme; there has been an increase of around 40 per cent in the SMC’s acceptance rate for end-of-life, orphan and ultra-orphan medicines; and there is a pilot on early dialogue with pharmaceutical companies. I have heard much deserved praise for the public and patient engagement programme that the SMC has put in place, and that work is being fostered through a pilot to share SMC decisions in confidence with patient groups ahead of publication. We have replaced the rare conditions medicines fund with an expanded new medicines fund. The amount available has been doubled twice—in consecutive years—and this year stands at £90 million. That means that the financial support has been available to implement the increase in access to new medicines. Moreover, the flexibility that the committee called for in individual patient treatment requests has delivered a tenfold increase in access to end-of-life, orphan and ultra-orphan medicines, and there is an on-going pilot for the peer-approved clinical system. The establishment of an area drug and therapeutics committee collaborative has achieved some early successes in bringing together representatives from across Scotland. It has led national work on optimising medicines use; it is supporting and strengthening public involvement; and it is developing and testing a new categorisation and communication policy for formulary decisions. The final development to note is the establishment of a formal programme of work for monitoring clinical effectiveness of cancer medicines in real-life settings. I should point out that many of the changes have been delivered by the SMC and HIS, and they should be commended for their dedication to making the changes that the Parliament and the Scottish Government asked for. To take—and to answer—the convener’s question, “Have we got more yeses?”, I think that yes, without doubt we have. However, we are not complacent. We need to continue to build on what has been achieved, and more needs to be done on fairer pricing of drugs for the national health service and on ensuring that the patient voice is at the front and centre of decision making. A key next step is the independent new medicines review, led by Dr Brian Montgomery, which will launch officially on 21 March with a stakeholder event in Edinburgh. Dr Montgomery will take stock of progress and advise us on whether the systems that we have in place are fit for the future.

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Health and Sport Committee 01 March 2016

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