Faster access to pioneering treatments for patients

The Department of Health and Social Care has said that improvements made to the Accelerated Access Collaborative (AAC) will put the most promising medicines, diagnostic tools and digital services through the clinical development and regulatory approval process faster.

Established in 2018 to speed up the time it takes for patients to benefit from ground-breaking products for conditions such as cancer, dementia and diabetes, the AAC will now become the new umbrella organisation for UK health innovation.

The Department of Health and Social Care says that it will now act as the ‘front door’ for innovators looking to get their products funded by the NHS and will provide support to overcome barriers that can prevent the best medical innovations from reaching patients.

Amongst other things, the new AAC will: implement a system to identify the best new innovations and make sure the NHS is ready to make use of them; set up a single point of call for innovators working inside or outside the NHS, so they can understand the system and where to go for support; signal the needs of clinicians and patients, so innovators know which problems they need to solve; and establish a globally leading testing infrastructure, so innovators can generate the evidence they need to get their products into the NHS.

Health Minister Nicola Blackwood said: “I want the NHS to be at the forefront of cutting-edge treatments and medical innovations – but often it can take too long for products to get from the bench to the bedside. The Accelerated Access Collaborative will speed up this process so patients and the NHS can be the first in the world to benefit from the most transformative technologies and treatments as part of our Long Term Plan.”