Drug giant to give out breast cancer pill for free on the NHS

...but only while chiefs work out cost

THOUSANDS of breast cancer patients will receive a groundbreaking drug for free while the NHS decides whether to fund it.

Pharmaceutical giant Pfizer yesterday said it would provide palbociclib for five months while rationing watchdog NICE assesses the treatment.

The unprecedented decision, which could benefit 2,400 UK patients, will increase pressure on officials to make the drug routinely available when they announce their ruling later this year.

Palbociclib is considered one of the most important advances in breast cancer medicine in the past 20 years.

The daily pill stops the most common type of advanced breast cancer in its tracks, freezing the growth of aggressive tumours. This delays the need for gruelling chemotherapy, enabling many women to lead normal lives for years.

Yet in February, NICE published a draft decision rejecting the drug due to its £38,350-a-year cost.

Officials accepted it could make a huge difference to women’s lives, even allowing them to keep working after diagnosis. But they said the cost was too high and demanded that Pfizer lower the price.

The company last night insisted it was providing the drug free of charge so that patients did not miss out during delays to the appraisal process.

But by doing this for a limited time, Pfizer will heap pressure on NICE to reverse its earlier decision and approve the drug.

If officials, who are due to publish final guidance at the end of September, continue to refuse to fund the drug it will mean roughly 6,000 women a year will miss out.

Drugs firms are becoming increasingly frustrated with rationing and belt-tightening in the NHS. The Association of the British Pharma- ceutical Industry last week claimed companies would abandon the UK unless ministers increased spending on healthcare by £20billion.

And last month Ben Hickey, UK general manager of pharmaceutical giant Bristol-Myers Squibb, said England is now one of the worst places in Europe to get cancer because patients cannot access the best new medicines. He said ‘archaic’ and ‘inflexible’ methods used by NICE were to blame.

Palbociclib works on advanced forms of the most common type of breast cancer, HER2-negative. Trials have shown taking the pills alongside a drug called an aromatase inhibitor stops the disease progressing for just over two years – ten months longer than the standard treatment.

But some patients have experienced even better results.

Pfizer has agreed that those who take the drug during the free period will not be taken off it if NICE rejects the treatment again. But no new patients would be able to access it without paying.

Fiona Hazell, of the charity Breast Cancer Now, said: ‘This is an unexpected lifeline for thousands of women living with this type of breast cancer. While only an interim measure, more than 16 women every day could have their lives changed by this drug during this window. Palbociclib can offer a large proportion of patients with incurable metastatic breast cancer significant extra time ... that can be truly invaluable to them and their loved ones.’

David Crosby, of Breast Cancer Care, said: ‘While people with incurable breast cancer who need this ground-breaking treatment immediately will breathe a sigh of relief, this decision will only add to the anxiety of those who may need it in future.

‘There remains looming uncertainty about whether the drug will be available in the long term.’

‘An unexpected lifeline for women’