The Scottish Government has invested £21 million to give patients with rare conditions access to expensive medicines on the NHS.

The funding will allow clinicians to make a special request to prescribe ‘orphan drugs', that have not been deemed cost-effective by the Scottish Medicines Consortium (SMC) and are not available on prescription by regional health boards, the government announced today.

It followed a recommendation made as part of an ongoing review into the availability of new medicines across NHS Scotland and it aimed to "bridge" the period until value-based pricing was introduced in April next year, said Scottish health secretary Alex Neil.

The Scottish Government's £21 million investment aims to bridge the period until value-based pricing is introduced

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"It is only right that Scottish patients with rare conditions have access to innovative medicines which are clinically justified and that they are not disadvantaged due to the very high cost of these treatments," he said. The announcement came on the back of the SMC's decision last month not to approve the use of the cystic fibrosis drug Kalydeco (ivacaftor) as it was not considered to offer value for money, RPS Scotland told C+D. This was despite it being available on the NHS in England from January 1.

"I can see why the Scottish Government has introduced this fund while value-based pricing comes in, but I think what we would really like now is to see the Scottish Government and pharmaceutical manufacturers discussing a way to make these drugs affordable in the long term," said RPS Scotland spokesperson Iain Brotchie.

The funding will be available from March until April 2014 and will be aimed at patients with conditions that affect less than one in 2,000 people.

Last week pharmacy bodies called for the government to increase the use of new and innovative medicines across England, in response to NHS data showing wide variation in uptake between commissioning localities.