Scots 'orphan drugs' fund launched

14 January 2013 Last updated at 13:25 ET

A 21m fund has been launched to help improve access to treatment for people with rare medical conditions.

Scottish Health Secretary Alex Neil said the move would help meet the cost of so-called orphan medicines.

These are drugs used to treat illnesses affecting fewer than one in 2,000 people.

The new fund will only cover the cost of medicines whose routine use has been rejected by the Scottish Medicines Consortium (SMC).

This could include drugs such as Kalydeco - also known as ivacaftor - which was rejected for use in Scotland by the SMC on Monday largely on the grounds of cost.

The NHS in England decided to provide funding for Kalydeco from 1 January this year.

Mr Neil said it was only right that Scottish patients with rare conditions had access to innovative medicines which were clinically justified, and that they were not disadvantaged due to the very high cost of these treatments.

For some individual patients with rare conditions, there is a need for further support

He added: "I am therefore pleased to confirm today that the Scottish government will establish a fund which will ensure that the cost of successful new individual patient treatment requests for orphan medicines are met."

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Scots 'orphan drugs' fund launched