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Written question asked by Layla Moran (Liberal Democrat) on Monday, 26 November 2018, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Wednesday, 28 November 2018. It was answered by Steve Brine (Conservative) on Wednesday, 5 December 2018 on behalf of the Department of Health and Social Care.

Fampridine

Question

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent steps his Department has taken to ensure that fampridine is available to people with multiple sclerosis.

Answer

NHS England published its policy on Fampridine in July 2016. This states that this is not routinely commissioned for multiple sclerosis (MS). This policy is based on the recommendations from National Institute for Health and Care Excellence in the publication 'Multiple sclerosis: management of multiple sclerosis in primary and secondary care (CG186)’ which recommends that fampridine is not used for MS as it is not a cost-effective option.

The NHS Business Services Authority only collects prescribing data on private prescriptions where the drug prescribed is a controlled drug. Fampridine is not classified as a controlled drug, so the information requested is not collected.

Since 1 April 2013, the NHS England Individual Funding Request (IFR) team has received 21 applications for Fampridine for multiple sclerosis (including Amifampridine/Firdapse; Fampridine/Fampyra; Fampridine SR/Fampyra). None of the applications were approved. It is not possible to distinguish IFR requests specifically from Oxfordshire.

Secondary information

Type
Written question
Reference
195673
Session
2017-19
Grouped for answer
Yes
Subjects
Multiple sclerosis Fampridine
Link
View this Written question on www.parliament.uk