Is this too high a price?

10:38am Friday 25th April 2008

IT has been clear to us for some time that there is a conflict at the heart of the National Health Service - a conflict between patient needs, medical opinion and the medicines watchdog, Nice.

Today's revelation, that Nice is poised to defy widespread medical opinion by banning the cancer wonder drug Tarceva, underlines the depth of that conflict.

Two months ago, following a campaign by Darlington cancer patient Dave Hill, and new evidence from clinical trials, the North-East NHS decided to go it alone in prescribing Tarceva to lung cancer patients in our region.

That decision was heralded as extra- special news and a wonderful testament to Mr Hill, who lost his fight for life just six days after the historic North-East breakthrough.

But now Nice has issued "a final appraisal determination" not to approve the drug for the NHS on the grounds of cost-effectiveness. It is not the end of the agonisingly lengthy process, but it is just one step away from the door being closed.

Patients need Tarceva. Lung cancer doctors across the country believe patients should get it. Other countries, including France, Italy, Spain and Austria, have prescribed it for some time. Yet the bean-counters are about to ban it in England because it costs too much.

That simply isn't good enough. It is not what we expect of the National Health Service.

When we tried to get a comment from Nice yesterday, no one was available to talk to us. We suspect it is because no one wants to try to defend the indefensible.

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