Will the Cabinet Secretary outline any plans in Wales to follow England and Scotland in routinely prescribing Duodopa for the treatment of advanced levodopa-responsive Parkinson's disease?
This medicine was appraised by the All-Wales Medicines Strategy Group (AWMSG) in 2007 who were unable to recommend it due to the lack of clinical and cost-effectiveness data from the manufacturer.
In 2014, we established a new appraisal process specifically designed to meet the challenges of appraising medicines to treat rare diseases (so-called orphan and ultra-orphan medicines), such as careldopa (Duodopa®). It is disappointing the manufacturer has not responded to requests by AWMSG to re-engage in the new, tailored appraisal process for the benefit of patients.
In the absence of the manufacturer's engagement with our appraisal process, Duodopa® cannot be routinely provided without under-mining the Welsh Government's evidence based approach to access to new medicines. I have asked AWMSG to continue their efforts to engage with the manufacturer and in particular, to explore their apparent reluctance to engage with the NHS Wales medicines appraisal process.