Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the SMC had suspended new drug appraisals to allow re-prioritisation of its resources during the pandemic (Read our previous post ‘Scottish Medicines Consortium (SMC) suspends meetings, whilst NICE aims for a phased restart of publications‘ here).
However, the SMC has recently announced that it is beginning to restart its medicines appraisal process in a phased approach. New Drugs Committee (NDC) meetings were restarted at the end of June, with Patient and Clinician Engagement (PACE) meetings beginning from early July. Finally, the SMC has announced that meetings are scheduled to resume from August.
Due to the backlog of applications, a phased approach will be implemented:
- The first phase will focus on existing applications that were being processed during the suspension. Some applications may be fast tracked to advice following a review by the SMC Executive.
- The second phase will see the SMC Executive agree on which submissions to review, given the unmet need and availability of other medicines. This is only a temporary step, with the SMC hoping to resume full review of all submissions, once the backlog has been cleared.