Producer of life-changing cystic fibrosis drug meet again with NHS England

Vertex Pharmaceuticals has been in talks with the government body about its drug Orkambi which will improve the lives of people aged six and above with cystic fibrosis.

As previously reported in The News, two Portsmouth mums have spearheaded a campaign to get the drug available on the NHS.

Their petition got 114,000 signatures and the topic was debated in parliament.

At the moment, Orkambi is not recommended for NHS use due to its price of £104,000 per patient, per year.

A Vertex spokeswoman said: ‘We can confirm that NHS England and Vertex had a meeting yesterday. Both parties recognise there is still some way to go to reach an agreement on how our medicines should be valued.

‘Vertex continues to share the cystic fibrosis community’s sense of urgency and the parties have agreed to meet again in the coming weeks.’