ABPI response to research on the Innovative Medicines Fund

Research published by the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM) in the Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine includes concerns about the value of the Innovative Medicines Fund, as well as the previous Cancer Drugs Fund. 

In response, ABPI Director of Value and Access Policy Paul Catchpole said:

“The Cancer Drugs Fund has allowed tens of thousands of NHS patients earlier access to cancer drugs deemed by NICE to potentially be value for money, but which need more evidence before entering routine commissioning. 

“The Innovative Medicines Fund was introduced more than a year ago to allow patients with other diseases, including rare conditions, to benefit from similar managed access to new medicines, while additional evidence is collected.

"No medicines have yet entered the fund on this basis, and we would like to work with NHS England and NICE to better understand why and help bring the fund to life so that patients can benefit.” 

Barriers to companies using the Innovative Medicines Fund include:

The mandatory requirement for companies to pay the full costs of treatment in perpetuity for patients using the Fund should a medicine not be recommended by NICE for routine commissioning after the managed access period. This is challenging because many of the medicines that could go into the Fund, such as those for rare diseases, need to be used life long and sometimes from childhood.

The requirement for companies to pay back any expenditure which exceeds the Innovative Medicines Fund’s annual budget, something which individual companies have no control over.

See the ABPI’s blog on the Innovative Medicines Fund: The Innovative Medicines Fund - Good news for patients but has an opportunity been missed to be more ambitious?