29.10.14
Cancer Drugs Fund ‘papering over’ payment system cracks
The government’s Cancer Drugs Fund (CDF), which allows people to access life-extending medicines not available on the NHS, is “papering over the cracks” of a payment system that is “no longer fit for purpose”.
This is according to charity Breakthrough Breast Cancer, which called on the pharmaceutical industry to “get serious about its pricing”. It was also stated that whoever forms the next government will need to get a grip on the problem.
CDF was originally envisaged as a temporary measure until a new method for determining priorities for drug funding was introduced.
However, as John Appleby, chief economist of health policy at the King’s Fund, wrote recently: “The failure to develop alternative drug funding criteria has meant that the CDF has not only continued but – as recently announced – has also been extended for a further two years with enhanced funding to £280m a year. By 2016, more than £1bn will have been spent via the CDF.”
Chris Askew, chief executive of Breakthrough Breast Cancer, said that in the last year alone, three promising drugs for secondary breast cancer have been rejected for routine use on the NHS due to their high cost.
But NICE, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence, said it approved drugs based on clinical and cost effectiveness.
Askew added: “The government has already made attempts to reform the system in England – a positive step forward – but this is a problem that will need long-term solution, not a series of sticking plasters.
“With no CDF in place, patients in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland are being denied the drugs they need. If we are serious about beating cancer, this unacceptable situation must be addressed.
“Until we have a sustainable, UK-wide system in place, the future availability of the treatments that regulators are being continually forced to reject will remain uncertain.”
Over the past six weeks Breakthrough has been gathering support for its ‘Demand a Fair Price’ campaign, calling for fairer access to life-extending drugs across the UK, and receiving thousands of registrants.
At the charity’s annual reception for parliamentarians in the House of Commons, Labour MP Sharon Hodgson, co-chair of the All Party Parliamentary Group on Breast Cancer, said: “Ahead of the general election, I will be supporting Breakthrough in calling on all political parties including my own to commit to solving the issues that currently exist around access to drugs.
“This will come from negotiations and ongoing discussion with pharmaceutical companies, regulators and charities to create a new system which will ensure all cancer patients across the UK can access the drugs they need at a fair price to the NHS.
The Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry (ABPI) stated that CDF has resulted in tens of thousands of NHS patients benefiting from innovative cancer medicines which they would otherwise have not receive
“However, we believe that the CDF is a sticking plaster for reversing poor patient access to cancer treatments in the UK, and the ABPI has called for the immediate evolution of current NICE appraisal processes for cancer medicines to address the growing issues and challenges around the Fund and to create a permanent and sustainable solution,” said Stephen Whitehead, chief executive at ABPI.
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