Fears spending cuts will hit cancer drugs (From The Northern Echo)

Fears spending cuts will hit cancer drugs

9:53am Monday 18th October 2010 in End NHS Injustice By Barry Nelson, Health Editor

CANCER charities were delighted earlier this year when the Conservatives pledged to set up a £200m fund to help patients get access to expensive new drugs.

That commitment appeared in the Tory election manifesto and may have helped to tip the balance to ensure the Conservatives returned to power.

For years, UK cancer charities have been protesting about the system of approving new drugs for the NHS which has resulted in many high-cost drugs being denied to English patients.

But now, despite the recent release of an interim £50m to kickstart the cancer drug fund ahead of the official launch next April, there are doubts whether the additional £200m will survive the comprehensive spending review.

If the full £200m does not go into the fund, it will go down very badly with patients and charities.

John Pagella, 76, from Bolam, near Darlington, who has a rare form of bone marrow cancer called myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS) was twice turned down by County Durham Primary Care Trust when his specialist applied for funding for treatment with a new drug called Azacitidine earlier this year.

Although it has been shown to extend the lives of patients and improve their quality of life, the drug was turned down for the NHS by the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence, or Nice.

Nice thought the price tag of about £45,000 per patient per year could not be justified by its performance.

But, thanks to the North- East’s £2.8m share of the interim Cancer Drug Fund, Mr Pagella has been advised that a new request would now be given a sympathetic hearing.

Mr Pagella’s wife, Kathy, said she would be very concerned if there was any suggestion that the additional £200m would not be added to the Cancer Drug Fund pot because of the spending review.

“With all the cuts going on we would be absolutely devasted if this was the case. People like John haven’t got time on their side,” she said.

Professor Rodney Taylor, chairman of the MDS UK Patient Support Group, said: “The likely withdrawal of a substantial part of the promised Cancer Drugs Fund is deeply disappointing, especially for patients with less common cancers. Newer drugs that have not yet been recommended by Nice for the commoner cancers, such as cancer of the lung, bowel, prostate and breast, could rapidly take up almost all of the fund. This would leave those with rarer cancers, which represent more than half of all cancer, without the possibility of support.”

Prof Taylor said: “It is also extremely disappointing that the Government appears to be reneging on a manifesto pledge within months of coming to power.

“This is particularly so as cancer experts say that the required annual sum to fund cancer drug treatments is closer to £700m than the original £200m on offer, which now seems likely to be reduced further.”