More than 70 patients with rare conditions, including more then 20 children, are already benefiting from the Scottish Government's new medicines fund.
The £21 million initiative, created in January, is for medicines not available for routine prescription that treat very rare illnesses.
The latest figures show 71 patients in Scotland have received, or are about to receive, ivacaftor, a new drug used to treat a rare form of cystic fibrosis. This figure includes 24 children between six and 16 years old.
The fund is an interim recommendation of the independent review into new medicines, which was published on Friday.
Health Secretary Alex Neil said: "This fund is for very specialist, and often expensive, medicines for rare conditions that affect fewer than 100 people in Scotland.
"The independent review into new medicines arrangements in Scotland singled out these medicines as an area where we needed to improve access.
Mr Neil said he was pleased the 71 people who had come forward are already benefiting from the new fund, adding that it was transforming the lives of those with rare conditions, especially younger sufferers.
He added: "We expect more patients to benefit from a wider range of medicines in the coming months."
The review of the current systems for making new medicines available across NHS Scotland was published on Friday.
Its recommendations, together with those from the Health and Sport Committee, will be open for consultation over the summer.
The fund was announced in January 2013 after interim advice from Professor Swainson that it would be justified. Professor Routledge also recommended that the Scottish Medicines Consortium should establish a policy specifically related to these medicines.
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