Nicholas Brown – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Nicholas Brown on 2015-11-13.
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what assessment his Department has made of the potential future effect of immuno-oncology treatments and funding of such treatments through the NHS budget.
George Freeman
We have made no such assessment.
The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) is the independent body that provides guidance on the prevention and treatment of ill health and the promotion of good health and social care. NICE technology appraisal guidance makes recommendations on whether selected drugs and treatments represent a clinically and cost effective use of National Health Service resources.
NICE has issued technology appraisal guidance that recommends the use of pembrolizumab for the treatment of advanced melanoma after disease progression with ipilimumab and is currently appraising a number of other immuno-oncology treatments/indications such as nivolumab.
Commissioners are legally required to fund drugs and treatments recommended in NICE technology appraisal guidance within three months of its final guidance being issued. In the absence of guidance from NICE, it is for commissioners to make decisions on whether to fund new medicines based on an assessment of the available evidence.
