The Innovative Devices Access Pathway (IDAP) pilot has been launched by the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC), Health Technology Wales (HYW), the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA), the National Health Service England (NHSE), the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE), the Office for Life Sciences Group (OLS), and the Scottish Health Technologies Group (SHTG).

Commenting on the launch of the pilot, Professor Alan Boyd says: “The launch of the Innovative Devices Access Pathway (IDAP) pilot is great to see and is a good example of what the UK is doing to support its life sciences strategy. If the IDAP pilot is successful, it should help to expedite UK patient access to innovative technologies by bringing more devices through the development process for approval.

“The IDAP is complementary to the Innovative Licensing and Access Pathway (ILAP) which aims to accelerate the time to market, facilitating patient access to medicines. A future pilot will be needed to illustrate the potential impact these pathways will have.”

Professor Boyd continues: “Given many of the new therapeutic approaches, like cell and gene therapies, rely on a medical device to get them to the site in the body where they are needed, using these two pathways together in future will be of huge benefit.”

Supported by £10m of Government funding, the aim of the IDAP is to expedite UK patient access to innovative technologies by providing innovators and manufacturers with multi-partner support and targeted scientific advice. For more information, visit: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/the-innovative-devices-access-pathway-idap