ABPI: NHS must explain drugs take-up
pharmafile | January 22, 2014 | News story | Sales and Marketing | ABPI, NHS, NICE, Whitehead
The ABPI has called on the NHS to explain what it says is the ‘substantial variation’ in NHS patients’ access to medicines throughout England.
The trade body is reacting to data in the Health and Social Care Information Centre (HSCIC)’s report on the use of NICE-appraised medicines in the NHS in England, and says it wants local action plans developed to address the issue.
ABPI chief executive Stephen Whitehead said: “The report is a stark reminder that where you live in England still has an impact on your access to new NICE-approved medicines, which clearly needs to be addressed urgently by the NHS.”
The ABPI acknowledges that there are legitimate reasons – local and regional health needs, for example – why take-up of drugs might vary.
But it says a “new way of looking at data on the usage of medicines in the NHS in England has revealed the true extent of the problem of variation in patients’ access to new medicines depending on where they live”.
The report, put together by a joint working group involving the Department of Health, NICE, HSCIC and pharma itself, demonstrates “significant unexplained variation that needs to be the focus of NHS efforts”, Whitehead insists.
In particular, the ABPI points to a ten-fold difference in usage between local area teams with Amgen’s osteoporosis treatment Xgeva (denosumab) – with lack of funding, differences in local interpretation of NICE guidance and insufficient services and pathways the key problems.
It also suggests one in three patients with renal cancer who are eligible for one of two new medicines – Pfizer’s Sutent (sunitinib) or GlaxoSmithKline’s Votrient (pazopanib) – did not receive them “due to the area that they live in”.
That is based on NICE estimates for uptake of these medicines and the ABPI suggests that the NHS “demonstrates varying degrees of a ‘watch and wait’ approach from point of diagnosis to introducing active treatment”.
“There is a real need for the wider NHS to learn from those that do it best,” ABPI insists.
In all, around a third of medicine groups assessed against a NICE estimate fell below expected usage, ABPI says.
Steve Oldfield, managing director of Sanofi in the UK & Ireland, and co-chair of DH/ABPI Metrics Oversight Group, said: “This report needs to be given the highest priority by the NHS, and should be of particular interest to Academic Health Science Networks (AHSNs) in their role in improving patient health outcomes by translating research into practice.”
Adam Hill
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