Davidson urges deal on breast cancer drug that can prolong life

Scottish Conservative leader Ruth Davidson has called for an urgent deal to allow a key breast cancer drug that is offered to patients south of the border to be made available in Scotland.

Perjeta, also known as pertuzumab, has been rejected three times for routine use in the Scottish NHS.

The charity Breast Cancer Now has said the treatment can prolong the lives of women with incurable HER2 positive metastatic breast cancer by up to 16 months.

Ms Davidson argued that delays in implementing a better system for negotiating on the cost of medicines in Scotland had left Scottish cancer sufferers facing the prospect of moving south to receive treatment.

Speaking at First Minister’s Questions at Holyrood, she said: “In Scotland today, women with secondary breast cancer are faced with a choice – they can move home for a chance to live longer, or they can stay put in the knowledge that that chance is denied them here.

“We urgently need a deal on Perjeta and we need to fix the system now.”

She continued: “The health secretary promised a new system of negotiating on the cost of medicines in December 2016. It is now May 2018 – 17 months later – so what is taking this government so long to fix the system to help get access to medicines like Perjeta.”

Nicola Sturgeon stressed that decisions on making particular medicines available for routine access via NHS Scotland are taken independently by the Scottish Medicines Consortium (SMC).

The consortium rejected the drug, manufactured by Roche, for a third time in June 2017 on the basis it was not cost-effective.

National procurement officials are in talks with the manufacturer aimed at achieving a “fair and transparent price”, the first minister said.

Ruth Davidson says women are relocating to England where the breast cancer drug is available.