The Department of Health has agreed to fund a host of charities to develop their skills as commissioning support organisations.

Macmillan Cancer Support, Arthritis Care and Epilepsy Action are amongst the organisations awarded a grant of £56,500 from the DH’s Innovation, Excellence and Service Development Fund.

Ciarán Devane (pictured), Chief Executive of Macmillan, said the grant will help the charity move one step closer to achieving “the best clinical outcomes and patient experience for all cancer patients”.

The charities will work alongside the Neurological Commissioning Support (NCS) as part of its programme to support health and social care commissioners.

NCS was established by the MS Society, Parkinson’s UK and the Motor Neurone Disease Association to provide advice and expertise to public sector commissioners.

The body worked with the DH to highlight how patient services and value for money could be improved further if charities were involved to develop their skills to advise commissioners.

Since then, it has been awarded funding as part of a development programme for the new two years.

“The voluntary sector hasn’t been seen as a credible partner for health and social care commissioning in the past, but the shift towards local commissioning provides a real opportunity to change that,” said Sue Thomas, Chief Executive of NCS. “Charities can reach out and engage people living with particular conditions, unlocking this previously untapped source of expertise.”

The £3.3m Innovation, Excellence and Service Development Fund currently supports 57 projects around the country.

Eli Lilly and Medtronic are to join forces to develop a new treatment for Parkinson’s disease which uses a drug delivery system implanted in the brain.

The companies hope to create a therapeutic approach for the disease that combines Lilly's biologic, a modified form of glial cell derived neurotrophic factor (GDNF), with Medtronic’s implantable drug infusion system technology.

Michael L. Hutton, Chief Scientific Officer of the Neurodegeneration team at Lilly, said that by combining the efforts of both companies early in the research, they are “maximising the potential for this therapy's efficient and effective development”.

He added: “We believe we have biosynthetically engineered this GDNF variant to overcome technical hurdles of previous research in this area and are hopeful that early testing of our biologic with Medtronic's device will provide the necessary data to safely advance into human studies.”

Medtronic’s drug pump and catheter have been designed to enable precise delivery of the GDNF variant into a targeted area of the brain consistently over time. It is hoped that this combination will impact the neurodegeneration that leads to the progression of Parkinson’s disease.

“One of the most significant challenges in delivering a biologic treatment for neurodegenerative diseases is crossing the blood brain barrier. We have extensive experience in targeted drug delivery and technology that allow delivery of therapeutic agents directly to the brain,” added Steve Oesterle, Senior Vice President of Medicine and Technology at Medtronic.

Eli Lilly and Medtronic are to join forces to develop a new treatment for Parkinson’s disease which uses a drug delivery system implanted in the brain.

The companies hope to create a therapeutic approach for the disease that combines Lilly's biologic, a modified form of glial cell derived neurotrophic factor (GDNF), with Medtronic’s implantable drug infusion system technology.

“Our collaboration with Lilly is bringing together the expertise of both companies to develop a new approach to the treatment of Parkinson’s disease,” said Steve Oesterle, Senior Vice President of Medicine and Technology at Medtronic.

“One of the most significant challenges in delivering a biologic treatment for neurodegenerative diseases is crossing the blood brain barrier. We have extensive experience in targeted drug delivery and technology that allow delivery of therapeutic agents directly to the brain.”

Medtronic’s drug pump and catheter have been designed to enable precise delivery of the GDNF variant into a targeted area of the brain consistently over time. It is hoped that this combination will impact the neurodegeneration that leads to the progression of Parkinson’s disease.

“We believe we have biosynthetically engineered this GDNF variant to overcome technical hurdles of previous research in this area and are hopeful that early testing of our biologic with Medtronic's device will provide the necessary data to safely advance into human studies,” said Michael L. Hutton, Chief Scientific Officer of the Neurodegeneration team at Lilly.

“By collaborating with Medtronic from the earliest phase of research, we are maximising the potential for this therapy's efficient and effective development.”

GSK is to reduce the cost of some of its NHS medicines in a move which could save the health service millions of pounds.

The company says it is committed to reducing the total cost of GSK products to the NHS in line with the current PPRS agreement – and has begun by cutting the price of ReQuip XL (ropinirole prolonged release) by 60% as part of this commitment.

Dr Mark Toms, Medical Director, Neurology, Immunology & Hepatitis, GSK UK Pharmaceuticals, says the move will “benefit the NHS in delivery of care to patients”.

ReQuip XL will now cost less than other dopamine agonists and could save the NHS up to £15 million in 2011.

GSK hopes the reduction in the current cost-contained environment will allow more access to the treatment used to treat Parkinson’s.

“We believe that people with Parkinson’s deserve access to once-daily dopamine agonists, but recognise that increasing cost pressures may restrict access to these medicines,” said Dr Toms.