In October 2013, the Scottish Government published its response to the Health and Sport Committee inquiry into access to new medicines. This recommended that the Scottish Medicines Consortium (SMC) should:

“…invite the manufacturer of the new medicine under consideration to give evidence at their main SMC appraisal meeting, in order to address any outstanding questions that SMC members have and highlight any outstanding issues of which they believe SMC should be aware prior to its advice being published.”

The Scottish Medicines Consortium (SMC) will invite sponsor companies to attend SMC meetings when one of their products is being considered (as a full submission or resubmission) from November 2014. The applicant company representatives will be expected to respond to specific queries regarding the submission and be able to provide clarification on any outstanding issues and matters of factual accuracy. There is no obligation for the company to attend and non-attendance will not prejudice the review.

For more details, go to: http://www.scottishmedicines.org.uk/Submission_Process/Submission_Guidance_and_Templates_for_Industry/Companies_At_SMC_Meetings