Weight Management Market Engagement Notice

Description

The purpose of this Prior Information Notice (PIN) is to invite suppliers to express their interest in collaborating with the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) and NHS England (NHSE) to inform and improve strategic outcomes in the field of weight management.<br/><br/>This market engagement (“Engagement”) seeks to explore ways to build the DHSC and NHSE evidence base to safely enable access to medicines used for managing obesity ("Obesity Medicines") for more patients who meet the relevant eligibility criteria.<br/><br/>There is no planned procurement activity relating to the publication of this PIN. Lot 1: Through this Engagement, DHSC and NHSE aim to provide further information to, and gather views from, organisations that are currently supplying Obesity Medicines to the UK, or that have Obesity Medicines in development for which a marketing authorisation for use in the UK is likely to be sought within the next three years.<br/><br/>The subject matter of this Engagement has been categorised as "Supplies" to reflect that, via this Engagement, NHSE and DHSC are seeking to shape and inform their strategic thinking prior to any future testing of new models of care, and/or potential future rollout(s) of Obesity Medicines. However, please note that there is currently no planned procurement activity relating to the publication of this notice. Future preliminary market engagement notices and/or PIN(s) may be issued by DHSC and/or NHSE to gather views through market engagement on specific proposals.<br/><br/>For the avoidance of doubt, the purpose of this PIN is to invite suppliers to express their interest in collaborating with DHSC and NHSE to improve the delivery and supply of Obesity Medicines in the UK. Since this is neither a call for competition nor a procurement, we have assigned it a nominal monetary value of £1. Additional information: The Secretary of State for Health and Social Care (“DHSC / the Department”) and NHS England (“NHSE”) (for the purposes of this notice acting through the Office for Life Sciences ("OLS”), a joint unit of DHSC and the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (“DSIT”)) is conducting this engagement (“Engagement”).<br/><br/>New medicines that can be used for managing obesity (“Obesity Medicines”) are an effective tool, to support some people living with obesity to lose weight, when prescribed alongside diet, physical activity and behavioural support. However, given the likely scale of patients who may be eligible for medicines in the pipeline, there is a need to explore delivery models and inform future NHS care pathways. In support of the Government’s missions to build an NHS fit for the future and to kickstart economic growth, as well as to progress the Life Sciences Plan, NHSE and DHSC are seeking to shape and inform their strategic thinking prior to any future testing of new models of care, and/or potential future rollout(s) of Obesity Medicines. (However, please note that there is currently no planned procurement activity relating to the publication of this Prior Information Notice (PIN). Future preliminary market engagement notices and/or PIN(s) may be issued by DHSC and/or NHSE to gather views through market engagement (“Engagement”) on specific proposals.)<br/><br/>This initial Engagement, via OLS, seeks to explore ways to build the evidence base to safely enable access to Obesity Medicines for more people who meet the relevant eligibility criteria, and explore interest from industry to partner with HMG to achieve this, through collaboration and investment.<br/>Through this Engagement OLS aim to provide further information and gather views from organisations who meet the following eligibility criteria: organisations who are currently marketing Obesity Medicines in the UK or who have Obesity Medicines in development for which a marketing authorisation for use in the UK is likely to be sought within the next three years (“Eligibility Criteria”).<br/><br/>To this end, OLS is inviting organisations to contribute their views to this Engagement (“provide a Response / be Respondents’’). OLS is offering the opportunity for Respondents to complete an on-line Questionnaire (“Questionnaire”) and attend a (one-to-one) online meeting with OLS to discuss safely enabling access for eligible patients to Obesity Medicines ("Engagement Meeting(s)"). Please note that it is not necessary to attend an Engagement Meeting to provide us with your views as we will be taking equal account of views expressed via the Questionnaire and views expressed in Engagement Meetings.<br/><br/>Specifically, OLS would like to discuss in respect of Obesity Medicines:<br/>• development pipeline(s) for future Obesity Medicines;<br/>• the key implementation challenges you expect to enable access to eligible patients and any research and development (R&D) ideas that would be required to address these;<br/>• your perspective on the future UK market demand for Obesity Medicines; and<br/>• the potential for future R&D and/or manufacturing investments in the UK<br/><br/>It is OLS’s intention to hold Engagement Meetings between Wednesday 18th September and Friday 27th September 2024. Whilst time slots will be allocated on a ‘first come first served basis’, OLS will use reasonable endeavours to ensure that an Engagement Meeting is held with all Respondents who express an interest in meeting within this timeframe.<br/><br/>All Respondents will be asked to complete the Questionnaire which can be accessed via the Atamis portal. (Additional documents can be submitted by Respondents as part of their Response.) If a Respondent intends to provide confidential information in their Response, the Department will consider entering into a non-disclosure agreement modelled on a template from His Majesty’s Government.<br/><br/>The Department may contact Respondents via Atamis and/or during the Engagement Meeting to clarify any information within their Response.<br/>Individual survey responses will not be shared outside of DHSC, DSIT, NHSE, the Department for Business and Trade, and His Majesty’s Treasury.<br/>A summary of the insights gathered will be published on the Atamis portal (protecting the confidentiality of Respondents by presenting insights in summary form; not publishing the name of any Respondent; not attributing any comments to any organisation and not including any information noted as confidential by Respondents). The summary will include an indication of any further opportunities to liaise with the Department in respect of the exploration of initiatives to safely enable access to Obesity Medicines for more people who meet the relevant eligibility criteria.<br/><br/>Further phases of consultation may be planned during 2024 in respect of enabling access to Obesity Medicines.<br/><br/>You can opt-in to be notified of these when details are published via completion of the Questionnaire and or contacting OLS directly via the following email address:<br/>olspartnerships@dsit.gov.uk<br/><br/>Responses to the Questionnaire should be submitted by 16:00 on Tuesday 1st October 2024.<br/><br/>Requests to attend an Engagement Meeting should be submitted 48 hours prior to the requested appointment time.