NHS England consults on Cancer Drugs Fund
pharmafile | October 6, 2014 | News story | Research and Development, Sales and Marketing | CDF, Cancer, NHS, NHS England, commissioning, oncology
NHS England is declaring new changes to the way the Cancer Drugs Fund operates in order to plug a major leak in its specialist commissioning budget.
In August it became clear that pharma had effectively priced itself out of the Cancer Drugs Fund.
In response, the British government said it will be extending the annual spend on the Cancer Drugs Fund (CDF) from £200 million a year to £280 million, to accommodate the inexorable rise of cancer drug costs.
But where once the CDF would pay for any drug at any price, each medicine will now be scrutinised for its cost-effectiveness, and it will not pay out for medicines deemed too costly.
So despite the extra £160 million, the government will still need to tighten its belt for new patients using the Fund from now until 2016, given the 9% increase in cancer patient diagnoses since 2010, and the surges of oncology drug costs year-on-year.
NHS England says that while the extra funding will go “some way to supporting the future sustainability of the fund”, doctors and cancer specialists “were clear that effective new treatments could only be added to the national list, if drugs of limited clinical benefit were removed”.
The money from the CDF pays for new oncology drugs not recommended by the cost-effectiveness body NICE, or are under appraisal from the watchdog. The Fund will have paid more than $1 billion from its start date in October 2010 to its current end date of March 2016.
NHS England, which effectively runs the health service, will now send out it plans for a public consultation on cost and access to “ensure best value for the NHS” to help keep the Fund sustainable.
It will publicly consult for four weeks on a number of proposals which include – for the first time – the consideration of the cost of cancer drugs when deciding whether a drug should be available or not on the national CDF list.
NHS England says in a statement that doctors and cancer specialists believe the proposed changes, if adopted, would:
- Improve patient access to the most clinically effective drugs available through the fund
- Encourage pricing that delivers value for money for patients and the public
- Put the fund on a much firmer footing for the future, as it faces increasing demand and growing financial pressure.
Ben Adams
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