NHS boosts rare cancer drug availability

NHS England has today pledged an additional £160 million over two years to its Cancer Drugs Fund (CDF). The investment will swell the CDF’s budget by 40%, increasing the current fund to £280 million per year.

Better funding will give more patients access to innovative drugs not routinely available on the NHS.

Alongside the monetary injection, two new drugs will be made available through the CDF. They are: Xtandi (enzalutamide) for prostate cancer and Revlimid (lenalidomide) for a new group of patients with a rare blood condition - myelodysplastic syndrome.

“It’s vitally important that as many people as possible have access to these pioneering, life-enhancing drugs

Health secretary Jeremy Hunt

Health secretary Jeremy Hunt said: “It’s vitally important that as many people as possible have access to these pioneering, life-enhancing drugs, and we need to continue to focus our efforts on increasing access to these innovative treatments, whilst ensuring that all patients continue to receive the effective drugs which are right for them.”

However, following an extension in 2013, the fund is only confirmed until March 2016, with the Department of Health, and NHS England, considering the best course of action for the fund thereafter.

In an effort to deliver the greatest possible benefits to patients in the near-term, chairman of the CDF Peter Clark has written to NHS England chief executive Simon Stevens recommending CDF’s panel of experts re-evaluate a number of drugs currently on the list. NHS England has accepted and agreed these proposals.

“To ensure patients continue to have access to the best innovative treatments now and in the future, we must re-evaluate some of the drugs on the list. This is absolutely the right thing to do for patients, and I am pleased Simon Stevens has accepted my recommendations,” Clark said.

According to NHS England, the CDF panel, which comprises doctors, pharmacists and patient representatives, will review all available evidence for a number of drugs currently on the list. The panel’s decisions will be published in due course.

The CDF panel will also develop options for a new ’Evaluation Through Commissioning’ scheme. This would allow the evaluation of the clinical effectiveness of promising new drugs, which are not currently supported by enough evidence to allow the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) to recommend these are made more routinely available.

Today’s announcement has been welcomed by industry body the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry (ABPI), who stated that additonal funding will help treat the many thousands of patients who receive medicines via the CDF.

Chief executive of the ABPI Stephen Whitehead has warned, however, that NICE frequently struggles with assessing the value of cancer and specialised medicines, citing the establishment of the CDF by government as a measure to solve the immediate problem.

“Whilst the CDF continues to have an incredibly positive impact for NHS cancer patients, and we welcome this latest cash injection, however it is only a short term solution and ultimately the NICE value assessment process needs to be reformed urgently so that more innovative cancer medicines can routinely be made available for NHS patients,” Whitehead said.

“We are keen to see the detail of the proposals set out by NHS England in order to evaluate them fully and the ABPI looks forward to working with NHS England, NICE and patient groups to ensure that NHS patients can continue to get access to all modern cancer and specialised medicines and that broader system reform can be achieved as quickly as possible,” he said in statement earlier today.