HELPING IMPROVE PATIENT OUTCOMES AND ACCESS TO NEW MEDICINES Our expert team advises on commercial agreements for high cost and new drug purchases. We advise a range of clients including NHS England when it enters into specialist and bespoke commercial arrangements relating to new and innovative high cost treatments that are not in routine commissioning. These highly confidential commercial arrangements allow our clients to make the best possible treatments available to patients across the country whilst still delivering value for money. Pharmaceutical companies are also able to benefit from access to the world’s largest publicly funded health service. MAIN AREAS OF PRACTICE Our team regularly advises on commercial agreements for high cost and new drug purchases in the following areas: CANCER DRUGS FUND (CDF) CDF allows for promising new cancer drugs to be made available to patients before they are fully approved for use in the NHS. These specialised agreements focus on keeping spend within the CDF budget and providing the evidence collection and data sharing arrangements necessary to assess if the drug can be moved into routine commissioning. BUDGET IMPACT TEST (BIT) If the budget impact of a new drug exceeds NICE's threshold of £20 million, in any of the first three years, NHS England may engage in commercial discussions with the company. These discussions are designed to mitigate the impact that funding the technology would have on the rest of the NHS. CLINICAL PRIORITIES ADVISORY GROUP (CPAG) CPAG assesses drugs, medical devices and treatments according to their clinical effectiveness, benefit for patients and value for money. We provide advice to NHS England about the commissioning of recommended services where they are likely to have a major budgetary impact. HIGHLY SPECIALISED TECHNOLOGIES (HST) HST are recommendations by NICE on the use of new and existing highly specialised medicines and treatments within the NHS in England. These medicines are often very high cost, low volume treatments where NHS England needs to enter into confidential commercial arrangements with the company in order to be able to make the treatments available to patients whilst delivering value for money to the NHS. THE 2019 VOLUNTARY SCHEME FOR BRANDED MEDICINES PRICING AND ACCESS (VPAS) Our team have been advising on this new scheme which allows NHS England to offer more innovative commercial solutions to companies to enable new high cost drugs to be offered to more patients whilst delivering better value for money for the NHS and the taxpayer. RELATED EXPERTISE Integrated Care Commissioning Acute and Specialised Major Trust Mergers and Insolvencies OUR CLIENTS Our expert team specialising in high cost and new drug procurement primarily advises the Specialised Commissioning Team within NHS England. HIGHLIGHTS Advising the Specialised Commissioning Team at NHS England on the first commercial agreements to be entered into under the new VPAS scheme. 1 2 3 OUR EXPERTS BRUCE POTTER Partner Reading View Profile EMYR LEWIS Consultant Cardiff View Profile SIMON MCCANN Partner Cardiff View Profile ELISABETH BELL Partner Reading View Profile ROB JEFFERIES Senior Associate Reading View Profile TOMOS LEWIS Senior Associate Cardiff View Profile Arrange A Call With One Of Our Experts BM INSIGHTS EVENTS BLAKE MORGAN'S PUBLIC SECTOR NETWORK – CHALLENGES FOR INFORMATION GOVERNANCE - WEBINAR, WEDNESDAY 8 DECEMBER 2021 We would like to invite you to our next Public Sector Network seminar on Wednesday 8 December 2021, specifically for those in the public and third sector. Read More ARTICLES COMPULSORY COVID-19 VACCINATION IN WIDER HEALTHCARE SECTOR What are the proposed changes to the law around compulsory COVID-19 vaccinations in the wider healthcare sector? Following an announcement by the health secretary on 9 November 2021, "frontline" CQC-regulated... Read More ARTICLES THE HEALTH AND SOCIAL CARE LEVY What does the new Health and Social Care Levy Act mean for the UK and who will it support? Our health and social care experts take a look. Read More ARTICLES REBALANCING CARE AND SUPPORT IN WALES The Welsh Government issued a White Paper on 12 January 2021 titled 'Rebalancing Care and Support', setting out proposals for improving social care arrangements, to better enable the sector to... Read More ARTICLES FURTHER UPDATE: COMPULSORY VACCINATIONS FOR ANYONE WORKING IN CARE HOMES IN ENGLAND The relevant Regulations requiring compulsory COVID-19 vaccinations for those working or deployed in CQC-registered care homes in England come into force on 11 November 2021. Since we first wrote this... Read More ARTICLES CHANGES TO PROCUREMENT LAW What are the changes to procurement law? Our experts take a look at the 'Transforming Public Procurement' Green Paper, challenges to public procurement, the Procurement Bill and the Welsh Government's... Read More Click Here For More Insights GET IN CONTACT Need Advice? 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