Scottish Government doubles fund for new medicines to £80m

The Scottish Government has announced it will double the amount of money available to treat people with rare or end-of-life conditions to £80m for 2015/16.

The New Medicines Fund, set up last year to expand and replace the Rare Conditions Medicines Fund, supports health boards to pay the cost of these expensive drugs.

It also supports changes to the way the Scottish Medicines Consortium (SMC) assesses medicines for use in NHS Scotland, resulting in an increasing number of treatments being approved for patients with very rare conditions or at end-of-life.

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Health Secretary Shona Robison said the New Medicines Fund had helped give patients across Scotland access to some of the most-advanced treatments and therapies.

She said: “This Government, working with the Scottish Parliament’s Health and Sport Committee, has radically overhauled access to treatments for people with rare and end-of-life conditions, and the New Medicines Fund has been key to removing a potential barrier to accessing expensive new drugs.

“For many patients, innovative treatments can extend their lives or improve the quality of the time they have left, and I am clear that we should be doing all we can to make these available.

“That is why I am announcing today that we will double the resources available to fund new medicines, committing £80 million next year to support patients needing rare or end-of-life treatments.

“The fund will work in tandem with the changes introduced to the SMC process, which has given patients greater say over decisions and resulted in more drugs approved for widespread use on the NHS.”

Since 2013/14, over 1,000 Scottish patients have started treatment funded by both the New Medicines Fund and the Rare Conditions Medicines Fund.

Yvonne Hughes, public affairs officer for the Cystic Fibrosis Trust, said: “We are delighted to be here today to hear the announcement of additional funding to be put into the New Medicines Fund. This fund currently pays for a small group of people with cystic fibrosis to receive a life changing drug.

“I believe this announcement will put at rest the minds of patients who were unsure of the future of the fund and, not only that, take comfort that the Scottish Government have paid attention and continue to support small patient populations, and those at end of life to receive drugs that really do make life-changing or life-extending improvements.”