Innovative Medicines Fund

Boris Johnson has announced that, if re-elected, the Conservatives would launch a £500m fund to give patients “quicker access to the most cutting-edge medicines for cancer and other diseases”.

Extending the Cancer Drugs Fund across all innovative medicines is real progress. But to ensure NHS patients don’t miss out on the latest treatments the fund should also include medicines currently being assessed by NICE as well as those not currently covered by NICE/NHS.

Patients with rare diseases have needed the NHS to show the kind of flexibility that’s already shown to cancer patients, and The Prime Minister’s announcement is therefore welcome news. We hope that all parties will recognise the need to create a new Innovative Medicines Fund to include rare diseases in order to allow fair access to high cost effective treatments and therapies.

Read more here: https://www.ft.com/content/486726f4-0d6e-11ea-b2d6-9bf4d1957a67