New NHS treatment fund will improve access to breakthrough treatments

A new drugs fund worth £340 million will be used by the NHS to fast track patients with rare diseases so they can have access to new treatment and medicines yet to be approved.

NHS England has confirmed its plans to set up an Innovative Medicines Fund to run alongside the existing Cancer Drugs Fund, equating to a combined total of £680 million.

The funds will allow patients to have access to treatments like gene therapy and medications thought to benefit patients but yet to mee the requirements for routine NHS use, opening up the possibility of new treatments for many more patients with rare diseases other than cancer.

Sir Simon Stevens, NHS chief executive, said “the NHS long term plan is leading to fast track access for innovative, cutting-edge therapies, at the same time as the NHS has also been treating more than 400,000 Covid hospitalised patients, and delivering the fastest and largest vaccination campaign in our history.

“In the last year NHS England has successfully negotiated deals for a range of new treatments, including drugs which may allow toddlers with spinal muscular atrophy the chance to walk thanks to the ‘world’s most expensive drug’, as well as giving cystic fibrosis patients the latest medicines against their debilitating disease. This new fund will build on these successes, offering hope to even more patients.”

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Posted by Tony May, Partner/head of Clinical Negligence Department, Chadwick Lawrence LLP (tonymay@chadlaw.co.uk ), medical negligence lawyers and clinical negligence solicitors in Huddersfield, Leeds, Wakefield and Halifax, West Yorkshire.

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