An extra £50 million is to be made available to help patients access innovative new cancer drugs, the Government has revealed.
This fund, due from October, precedes the promised Cancer Drugs Fund due to commence in April next year. Doctors will be put in charge of deciding how the funding is spent based on the advice of cancer specialists.
The announcement coincides with the publication of a report by National Cancer Director Professor Sir Mike Richards, which shows the UK’s uptake of new drugs falls behind other European countries.
Minister for Universities and Science David Willetts said: “The UK is a world leader in researching and developing innovative medicines to improve health and save lives. The swift uptake of new treatments within the NHS is vital so patients can benefit, and I welcome Professor Richards’ recommendation that we need to do more to achieve this.
“Sustaining the rapid adoption of new advances is also important to promote research and development by the life sciences industry. Through the Office for Life Sciences, my department is committed to working with the Department of Health to ensure that the changes we are making to the NHS deliver both health and economic benefits.”
While the research showed good provision of drugs such as statins in the UK, the country had a low ranking for access to drugs for dementia, multiple sclerosis and newer cancer drugs. However, many of these cancer drugs have not been approved by NICE.
Andrew Dillon, Chief Executive of NICE, told the BBC: “There will always be exceptions to our recommendations which are justified on clinical grounds. A national fund to meet the cost of these exceptional cases, administered in a consistent way, complements NICE guidance and we are happy to work with the new arrangements.”
Patient groups have also welcomed the new fund. Nick Turkentine, Chief Operating Officer for the James Whale Fund for Kidney Cancer, said: “For the past four years we have been pleading in front of juries of PCT administrators to allow patients to have proven, innovative cancer drugs that clinicians want to prescribe. Today’s accelerated plans to pay for an emergency drug fund could save hundreds of lives as long as these clinically led regional panels do not hold up proceedings.”
Tags: cancer fund, coalition Government, James Whale Fund for Kidney Cancer, NICE