Nice under fire for decision not to fund liver cancer drug (From The Northern Echo)

Nice under fire for decision not to fund liver cancer drug

11:04am Wednesday 9th September 2009 in

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A NORTH-EAST liver cancer specialist says she is very disappointed that desperately-ill patients will not benefit from a new life-extending drug which is widely available across Europe.

The National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence, Nice, today publishes draft guidance about the use of liver cancer drug Nexavar.

Despite evidence that the drug, which costs £15,000 for a six-month course, can extend the lives of terminally-ill liver cancer patients by up to ten weeks, Nice is not recommending Nexavar for use on the NHS. It said its independent appraisal committee concluded that Nexavar would not be a cost-effective use of NHS resources.

The decision, which is one step short of Nice’s final guidance, has been widely criticised by a number of liver specialists around the UK.

The decision came despite an offer by the drug’s manufacturer, Bayer Schering Pharma, to reduce its cost.

Dr Helen Reeves, a consultant gastroenterologist at the Freeman Hospital, in Newcastle, where Nexavar was one of the first centres to test the drug on patients, said: “I am very disappointed that Nice and Bayer Schering Pharma have not been able to come to a satisfactory arrangement that would enable our North- East patients with advanced hepatocellular cancer, who are otherwise fit enough, to receive Nexavar.

“Many are simply not fit enough, so it is not an issue for them, but for those who are fit enough, we have nothing else.

“Now that there is an effective treatment out there, albeit a costly one with a relatively modest benefit, it is disheartening for us not to be able to prescribe it.”

Dr Harpreet Wasan, a cancer specialist at Hammersmith Hospital, in London, said the decision denied patients “the life-preserving benefits of modern treatments” and was “a devastating blow”.

A spokeswoman for Nice said: “If this treatment was provided on the NHS, other patients would lose out on treatments that are both clinically and cost effective.”

■ The Northern Echo’s End NHS Injustice campaign has called for better access to cancer drugs for health serivce patients and has brought about some change.