NHS DROPS 16 DRUGS FROM CANCER FUND
‘Hammer blow’ to affect 5,500 patients
THOUSANDS of patients are to be denied life- extending treatments after the NHS last night slashed its flagship Cancer Drugs Fund.
Officials removed 16 drugs from the scheme, meaning patients will miss out on treatments for a swathe of cancers.
Furious campaigners said the decision was a devastating backward step in the way the NHS treats the disease – and a ‘hammer blow’ to patients.
Many of the drugs offered a final chance for sufferers for whom chemotherapy has not worked. They include Abraxane, which extends life by two months for pancreatic cancer patients.
Kadcyla, a revolutionary breast cancer drug, and Avastin, which treats cervical, breast and bowel cancer, have also been lost. Those suffering from multiple myeloma – a bone marrow cancer – will lose two therapies, Revlimid and Imnovid.
The cuts follow criticism of the way big drugs companies price their products. Kadcyla, for example, is the most expensive cancer treatment in the world, with a list price of £90,000 a year.
The NHS England announcement, slipped out on its website yesterday amid focus on the migrant crisis, revealed 16 drugs are to come off the list from November, but several can be used for various types of cancer, so the cuts cover 25 different treatments.
An estimated 5,500 patients will be affected by the cull, on top of 5,168 affected by the last round of cuts, in March. It means that after November the number of people able to access the fund will have dropped by 10,600.
Campaigners say poor access to cutting- edge treatments is one of the reasons cancer survival rates in Britain continue to lag behind other rich nations.
Eric Low, of charity Myeloma UK, said: ‘If this trajectory of travel continues, we’ll be back to the 1800s in the treatment we’re offering patients.’
Baroness Delyth Morgan, of Breast Cancer Now, said: ‘Because the Government, the NHS and the pharmaceutical industry have failed to agree realistic prices for new drugs, some women will die sooner.’
The CDF’s chairman, Professor Peter Clark, said it faced ‘a difficult set of choices’, but added: ‘It is our duty to ensure we get maximum value from every penny available on behalf of patients. We must ensure we invest in those treatments that offer the most benefit, based on rigorous evidence-based clinical analysis and an assessment of the cost of those treatments.’
The CDF was launched by David Cameron in 2011 to pay for treatments deemed too expensive for NHS funding, after campaigning by the Mail highlighted the scandal of patients
‘Some will die sooner’
denied access to life- saving drugs available elsewhere.
The budget was initially capped at £200million, but this has risen to £340million with growing demand. The rise hit drug firms’ profits because they have to pay money back to the Department of Health if the total NHS drugs bill exceeds £10billion.
The Association of British Pharmaceuticals Industry has come under fire after it com- plained that the CDF budget increase was not part of its existing deal with the NHS.
The Department of Health agreed last month to reduce the rebate linked to the CDF by £20million a year, decreasing the sum available for more drugs.
Alison Clough, of the ABPI, said that under the rebate programme drugs companies will still pay £4billion back to the Department of Health over five years.
An ABPI spokesman added: ‘Under the new agreement, the Department of Health and the ABPI have sought to protect the interests of all NHS patients … while recognising the need to clarify CDF spending within the [rebate scheme].’
An NHS spokesman said last night: ‘Despite previous action taken to contain costs, current projections suggest that spending would rise to around £410million for this year … all decisions on drugs to be maintained in the CDF were based on the advice of clinicians, the best available evidence, and the cost of the treatment.’
But experts said the entire system needs an overhaul.
Professor Paul Workman, of the Institute of Cancer Research, said: ‘Today’s decision is an example of the confusion at the heart of our drug assessment system, with some treatments first being refused by NICE, then accepted on to the Cancer Drugs Fund and now to be removed … What we urgently need is a new unified system for evaluating treatments.’
Andrew Wilson, of the Rarer Cancers Foundation, said: ‘These cuts will be a hammer blow to many thousands of desperately ill cancer patients.’
The Department of Health said: ‘We are absolutely committed to the Cancer Drugs Fund, which has already helped more than 72,000 people … and is worth £340million this year … [it] focuses on those drugs offering the greatest benefit to patients.’
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