Hansard

First, it is still important to demonstrate clinical effectiveness. We have made funding available through the new medicines fund, which is funded through the PPRS. Anas Sarwar will be aware that that is under negotiation as we speak; I will come back to that.

As for improving the ways to negotiate with drug companies, a number of steps have been taken to better pursue best value for the NHS. NHS Scotland and the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry have agreed a new voluntary system to ensure that, for the first time, discounts that are offered to one part of the UK are made available at the same level in Scotland.

We want to go further and help NHS Scotland to negotiate for patients in new ways. Critical to that is ensuring that the new UK PPRS leaves greater scope for NHS Scotland to negotiate with companies about their applications for new medicines. Sadly, the existing PPRS, which expires at the end of the year, places tight constraints on Scotland’s scope for additional negotiation. That prevents opportunities for negotiation, as we cannot contravene the PPRS terms that the UK Government agreed.

We have asked twice for Scotland to be a party to the upcoming PPRS negotiations with the industry, to ensure that we secure the scope for greater flexibility in negotiation, but our requests have been refused. Our aim is to align the implementation of a new negotiation scheme and the implementation of the single national formulary to the outcome of the PPRS negotiations, which we hope will be concluded as quickly as possible. As such, I am happy to accept Miles Briggs’s amendment, as well as the Labour motion. I hope that we can rely on support from members across the Parliament for Scotland to receive a fair deal and the flexibility that we need from the PPRS negotiation.

Today’s motion refers to two specific medicines—one for secondary breast cancer and the other for cystic fibrosis. Just last week, the Parliament heard of the terrible toll that is taken on people who live with cystic fibrosis, and few of us will not have had a family member affected by cancer.

The SMC, NHS Scotland and my officials have been working to help the companies that have developed Orkambi and Perjeta to apply to have their medicines considered flexibly by the SMC. I warmly welcome the undertaking that was offered by Roche to make a new application for Perjeta—that is a positive step. I hope that the makers of Orkambi will submit a fresh application, too, because it is important that clinical effectiveness is established and that is the process that every company must go through. Scottish Government officials met representatives of Vertex Pharmaceuticals this week to discuss its proposals. I hope that it will engage fully and positively with assessments to ensure the clinical effectiveness of its medicines.

The Scottish Parliament has helped to drive forward substantial reforms in this area, but we must also expect that some companies reform some of their practices and come forward with far fairer prices and clear clinical evidence for assessment. Every other pharmaceutical company has to do that.

There is little doubt that decisions around the availability of new medicines are among the most difficult issues that Governments face, which is why the system is independent and not in the hands of politicians. The system has been reformed considerably—any reasonable person would agree with that—which means that we get more drugs more quickly into the hands of more patients. We have made advances and we will not stop in our efforts to make further advances.

I move amendment S5M-12856.3, to insert at end:

“; welcomes the introduction of a new ultra-orphan pathway within the Scottish Medicines Consortium process that will make available, with ongoing evaluation for at least three years, medicines for the rarest conditions; notes the roll-out of the Peer Approved Clinical System in June 2018, replacing individual patient treatment requests, which allows clinicians to seek medicines for their patients that are not currently accepted for routine use by the NHS in Scotland, and which makes clear that the cost of the medicine must not be part of the decision-making process; further notes the commitment of the Scottish Government to continue to use all Pharmaceutical Price Regulation Scheme rebate funding to support access to new medicines; welcomes the commitment of the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry for its members to provide Scotland with the same discounts offered elsewhere in the UK for accessing medicines, and believes that pharmaceutical companies should offer NHS Scotland fair prices and should properly engage with health technology assessments in order to demonstrate the clinical effectiveness of their medicines.”