Government to speed up access to new cancer drugs
pharmafile | April 24, 2012 | News story | Sales and Marketing | CDF, Cancer, Roche, UK, avastin, government, sha
Access to England’s Cancer Drugs Fund will be speeded up, ministers have confirmed.
Currently, it can take a number of weeks for patients to access cancer drugs through the Fund, but the government says that most patients will be able to access these medicines within a matter of days after an application has been made.
This is according to new guidance from the Department of Health, which looks to advise the NHS on its use of the Fund in the coming 12 months.
It replaces last year’s guidance, and is looking to speed things up by setting ‘challenging timescales’ for decision-making under the Fund.
The guidance also says that SHAs – the bodies responsible for the Fund – must ensure that they are transparent in publishing what they have spent.
This has not always been the case, with some SHAs more willing to publish up-to-date data on their use of the Fund than others.
It also advises SHAs to have a layperson present during the funding process in order to ‘support patient confidence’.
The Fund was part of the Conservative’s election promise in 2010 and a £50 million interim Cancer Drugs Fund was set up in October of the same year.
This ran until April 2011 when the full £200 million Cancer Drugs Fund came into effect, and is planned to keep injecting that money annually until 2014.
Its purpose is to fund cancer drugs that have not been recommended by NICE, or are currently being appraised by the watchdog.
Health minister Lord Howe said: “Our priority is to ensure that cancer patients get the drugs their doctors believe are best for them.
“Today we have issued new guidance on the Cancer Drugs Fund which will further speed up applications for drugs as they will not normally need to go through the PCT funding processes prior to applying to the Fund.
“This will ensure patients get the fastest possible access to the drugs they need.”
Lord Howe added that SHAs will now provide data on their use of the Fund during the past year, and will send this on to the Cancer Intelligence Unit for analysis.
Underspend
But according to analysis by Pharmafocus, there has been an underspend of around £60 million on the Fund last year.
Leading cancer charities have said this is because some doctors have not been alerted to the Fund, and have asked for greater awareness about it.
The DH says that it has worked with NHS colleagues to review the guidance issued in 2011, taking into account public feedback from cancer charities, to ensure cancer patients are able to better access the drugs they need.
From these conversations, it says that ‘appropriate mechanisms’ should be in place to ensure that patients and clinicians have up-to-date information on their local CDF policy, and SHAs should ensure that doctors have everything they need to make an application.
It hopes that this new guidance will not only speed up access, but will have the effect of increasing uptake, ensuring that the entire fund is spent over the next year.
Ben Adams
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