Drugs listed to be removed from the U.K. Cancer Drug Fund include Roche’s Avastin (bevacizumab) and Kadcyla (transtuzumab emtansine), and Celgene’s Imnovid (pomalidomide) and Revlimid (lenalidomide). The medications are applicable for breast, pancreatic and blood cancers. The drugs are being removed as part of cost-cutting measures instigated by the U.K. government.
The idea behind National Health Service England’s Cancer Drug Fund was to give patients access to cancer drugs that have not yet been approved by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE.) One function of NICE is to determine which drugs should be held by the health service based on effectiveness and affordability.
Before the last general election, David Cameron appeared to back patient groups when he proposed setting up a separate fund for drugs that had yet to go through full efficacy testing, so that, should a medic see fit and a patient request, more experimental cancer drugs, or drugs in development, could be accessed.
In light of the fund having overspent by £70 million already this year (with the financial year beginning in April 2015), the U.K. government has decided to make some heavy cuts.
Commenting on the changes to European Pharmaceutical Review, Professor Peter Clark, Chair of the Cancer Drug Fund, stated: “There is no escaping the fact that we face a difficult set of choices, but 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.”
Speaking out against the move, Andrew Wilson, chief executive of the charity Rarer Cancers Foundation, told the BBC: “These cuts will be a hammer blow to many thousands of desperately ill cancer patients and their families…the NHS has announced big reductions in access to existing life-extending treatment, with no action to make available the newest game-changing drugs.”
The news that a number of drugs have been expunged from the list has been strongly criticized by cancer charities. In turn, many patients are annoyed by the Conservative government’s U-turn.
