Part of 2. Questions to the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Services – in the Senedd at 2:39 pm on 17 October 2018.
I accept completely that Members in every party are acting in good faith in asking questions around this. I completely accept that. There has been engagement between our appraisal process on a number of occasions, which has not resulted in the additional clinical data being provided. The procurement question is interesting. But you get to that point once you have gone through the appraisal process. Because, if the manufacturer cannot demonstrate that the medicine on offer is effective and safe, then it doesn't really matter what the price is. If Vertex offered something for £1 a go—well, if you can't demonstrate that it's effective, then it isn't going to get through the gate. The challenge about procurement and a possible portfolio approach becomes interesting once the clinical data is available, and that would then potentially allow us to take a different and a broader view, in exactly the same way that a number of drug manufacturers already do; they call them 'patient access schemes'. So, yes, I am open and our system here in Wales—as indeed is every other UK nation—is open to a sensible conversation about cost once Vertex comply with the process that they, and every other drug manufacturer, understand and they make available that clinical data for a proper and independent appraisal.