B

Baroness Merron (Lab)

Speaking in the House of Lords on 15 June 2026

Debate

Rare Cancers: Diagnosis and Treatment

Contribution

Such considerations are always made, as the noble Lord is aware, when we make plans in respect of where taxation applies—I know there was an Urgent Question in the House of Commons which the Minister concerned, Karin Smyth, answered. In evaluating all new medicines, including for rare cancers, NICE is able to recommend many new treatments now available to NHS patients that previously were not, but I take the point of the question. I want to emphasise that the cancer drugs fund means that there is funding for promising new cancer drugs and NHS patients can get earlier access to treatments that would not otherwise have been available to them. Through the MHRA, we are also designing a new framework for regulation of rare disease treatments in all these ways. That will certainly support the point the noble Lord rightly made.

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