NHS England is launching a clinical trial of the HIV drug PrEP, following a court ruling that they are in a position to provide the new drug.
Committing £10m over the next five years to fund the trial, NHS England and Public Health England will launch the clinical trial to 10,000 participants in early 2017/18.
The trial, which is expected to last three years, follows a recent Court of Appeal ruling that found NHS England has the power, but not the obligation to fund the anti-retroviral drug pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP).
NHS England is launching a clinical trial of the HIV drug PrEP, following a court ruling that they are in a position to provide the new drug.
Committing £10m over the next five years to fund the trial, NHS England and Public Health England will launch the clinical trial to 10,000 participants in early 2017/18.
The trial, which is expected to last three years, follows a recent Court of Appeal ruling that found NHS England has the power, but not the obligation to fund the anti-retroviral drug pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP).
PrEP has been shown to lower the risk of HIV by more than 90% in those that are at high risk of infection.
NHS England is also committing to routinely commissioning 10 new specialised treatments as part of the annual prioritisation process for specialised treatments.
Dr Jonathan Fielden, director of specialised commissioning and deputy national medical director at NHS England said the decision to fund a clinical trial was “made possible by the willingness of many pharmaceutical and device companies to come forward with lower and more responsible prices”.
Professor Kevin Fenton, director of health and wellbeing at Public Health England said: “Currently 13,500 people are living in the UK with undiagnosed HIV and we are still seeing around 5,000 new infections each year.
“Given we are in the fourth decade of this epidemic there are too many new infections occurring, and we need to use all tools available to save lives and money.”
The 10 new treatments to be routinely commissioned include:
- Pegvisomant for acromegaly as a third-line treatment for adults
- Auditory brainstem implants for congenital abnormalities of the auditory nerves or cochleae
- Haematopoietic stem cell transplant in adults
- Everolimus for subependymal giant cell astrocytoma associated with tuberous sclerosis complex
- Rituximab for immunoglobulin-G4 related disease
- Microprocessor controlled prosthetic knees
- Tolvaptan for hyponatraemia secondary to the Syndrome of Inappropriate Antidiuretic Hormone (SIADH) for patients who require cancer chemotherapy
- Ivacaftor for children aged 2-5 years with cystic fibrosis
- Sodium oxybate for symptom control for narcolepsy with cataplexy in children
- Pasireotide for Cushing’s Disease
