SCOTTISH MEDICINES CONSORTIUM'S DECISION ON ASTHMA DRUG

That this House welcomes the Scottish Medicines Consortium's (SMC) decision to consider a resubmission on the use of the potentially life-saving treatment Xolair for people in Scotland with severe allergic asthma; hopes that both the SMC and the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence are fully aware of the effect of severe asthma symptoms experienced by 2.6 million people in the United Kingdom, including half a million people for whom their asthma is difficult to control even with the best medicines available; appeals for further work to be completed across the United Kingdom to reduce emergency admissions to hospital, 75 per cent. of which are avoidable, and reduce the number of deaths that take place from asthma in the United Kingdom, as many as 90 per cent. of which are thought to be preventable; and notes Asthma UK's campaign for Xolair to be made universally available for the treatment of severe allegic asthma across the United Kingdom.