A NEW drug which has been praised by a leading North- East cancer specialist has been turned down by the NHS medicines watchdog.

However, cancer specialists in the North-East will still be able to prescribe the drug to patients by using the Government’s Interim Cancer Drugs Fund.

Last night, drug makers Roche expressed their disappointment after the NHS medicines watchdog – the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (Nice) – ruled against making a drug called Avastin available to women because of concerns about its value for money.

Nice’s decision not to recommend Avastin for patients with advanced breast cancer means that it will not be generally available on the NHS.

But a decision by the North of England Cancer Drug Approvals Group (NECDAG) to back the drug means patients in the North-East can receive the £20,000-a-year drug free.

Last night, Dr Mark Verrill, consultant medical oncologist at the Newcastle Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, and a member of the NECDAG, said: “Avastin undoubtedly adds to the benefit of conventional chemotherapy for women with metastatic breast cancer.

“There is no doubt that it increases the chance of the tumour shrinking compared to chemotherapy on its own.”

Dr Verrill said the latest analysis of drug trials using Avastin presented at a European conference showed that the drug increased life expectancy in patients with advanced breast cancer. Roche says it can extend life by an average of 5.6 months.

Dr Verrill said: “In clinical practice, this is a group of patients with notoriously poor outcomes, limited treatment options and so the greatest unmet need.

“In the North-East of England, I am pleased that Avastin for these women is one of the indications for which Interim Cancer Drugs Fund money has been allocated.”

Avastin is also on the list of approved drugs in Yorkshire and the Humber, but it is subject to more conditions than in the North-East. Cancer specialists in the North-East can prescribe Avastin to women with advanced breast cancer and women who are postmenopausal.

The drug is available to their colleagues in North Yorkshire for advanced breast cancer, but they cannot prescribe Avastin to women who are post-menopausal.

A spokeswoman for Roche said a North-South divide had opened up, with women in the North able to get Avastin via the Government’s Interim Cancer Drugs Fund, but women in the South denied access because of the Nice ruling.