NHS England approves Cancer Drugs Fund proposals
pharmafile | February 26, 2016 | News story | Medical Communications, Research and Development | ABPI, Cancer Drugs Fund, NHS England
NHS England has approved proposed reforms of the Cancer Drugs Fund, following the end of the 12-week consultation period earlier this month.
The English public health body says the reforms, in which the CDF becomes a managed access Fund within NICE from July 2016, will improve patient access to innovative medicines. Under the new system, new oncology drugs on the market will be assessed by NICE, which will give a ‘yes’, ‘no’ or ‘maybe’ decision.
Drugs given a ‘yes’ will be made routinely available on the NHS, while those given a ‘maybe’ will be considered for Cancer Drugs Fund, and funded while additional real-world data is gathered on the drug’s efficacy for a period of around two years. The new fund will have a fixed budget of £340 million.
Bruce Keogh, medical director at NHS England, comments: “Improving cancer care is an absolute priority for NHS England[…]that is dependent on access to treatments. [The CDF] will provide faster access for patients; I think that’s really important, and I think it will bring clarity to which drugs are the most effective sooner than we know at the moment.”
NHS England’s decision to approve the reforms has, however, been met with criticism by some pharma companies, patient groups and charities, as well as the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry (ABPI), which yesterday called for reform of the NICE methodology for reviewing cancer medicines in order to prevent large numbers of drugs being removed from the fund on a cost basis. The Association called the new proposals “largely unchanged”, and said they could in fact hurt patient access.
NICE is to reassess the 47 cancer drugs currently available via the CDF, amidst fears NICE’s cost-benefit thresholds are too rigid, and could lead to almost half of the medicines being deemed not to be cost-effective.
The ABPI’s value and access director, Dr Paul Catchpole, comments: “The ABPI is disappointed by today’s decision by NHS England that it will continue to push ahead with largely unchanged proposals for a new Cancer Drugs Fund. This carries the very real risk of significantly setting back patient access to cancer medicines, now and for the foreseeable future.
“If cancer medicines go through more or less exactly the same NICE appraisal process that was in place five years ago – which necessitated the setting up of the CDF in the first place – we will largely get the same answers as before – the majority of medicines will be turned down. Turning the clock back five years just doesn’t make sense; substantial change is needed to the way that NICE appraisers cancer medicines to prevent this.
“We also need less draconian financial controls. It is unreasonable for companies to be expected to underwrite 100% of the financial risk in managing the CDF budget, something which is outside of their individual control.
“Without substantial changes, the ABPI estimates that under the proposals two thirds of existing CDF medicines are likely to no longer be available to NHS patients by the end of the year. This is in addition to patients who are already waiting for access to around ten new cancer medicines which have been launched since the Fund was closed to new applications in May 2015.”
Joel Levy
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