What consideration has the Minister made of the impact of proposed reforms to the Cancer Drug Fund (CDF) in England evolving into the Innovative Medicines Fund (IMF) and the potential impact of these changes on the access to approved medicines in Wales?
In Wales, decisions on the availability of medicines are guided by the advice of the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) and the All Wales Medicines Strategy Group. Medicines approved for use in the Cancer Drugs Fund in England are approved by NICE and are therefore made routinely available in Wales in line with the requirements of Wales’ New Treatment Fund.
The New Treatment Fund ensures medicines recommended by NICE and AWMSG are routinely available within 60 days of their first recommendation, this includes new and innovative medicines for all conditions not just cancer. Since its launch 368 new treatments have been made available through the fund with the average time to make a new medicine available in Wales just 13.4 days.
How the Innovative Medicines Fund will operate is not yet known, however where medicines are recommended by NICE through their established process and made available to NHS Wales on the same terms, they will be continue to be covered by the terms of our New Treatment Fund.