NHS Launches Innovative Medicines Fund to Fast-Track Novel Drugs

The UK’s National Health Service (NHS) has announced a new initiative, the Innovative Medicines Fund, to speed access to potentially life-saving new drugs.

NHS Chief Executive Simon Stevens said the new fund will be used for negotiating deals with drugmakers for new treatments, such as “drugs which may allow toddlers with spinal muscular atrophy the chance to walk … as well as giving cystic fibrosis patients the latest medicines against their debilitating disease.”

The initiative, which will receive $467 million in initial funding, is intended to complement the NHS’ Cancer Drugs Fund.