Patients ‘shut out’ of drug price talks
pharmafile | November 13, 2012 | News story | Sales and Marketing | Cancer, NHS, NICE, VBP, prostate
Patients are being excluded from the negotiations between government and the pharma industry on the introduction of Value-Based Pricing (VBP).
That is the view of a coalition of more than a dozen cancer charities, who claim there is a danger of ‘shutting patients out’ of talks about establishing a system which is in part designed to reflect how useful drugs are to sufferers.
“Ignoring the views of patients risks seriously undermining the credibility and effectiveness of the new system before it has even been established,” the charities said in a statement.
The coalition includes Breakthrough Breast Cancer, Bowel Cancer UK, Leukaemia Care and Macmillan and is led by Prostate Cancer UK, which has published a report on the issue.
‘Value-based pricing: getting it right for people with cancer’ highlights research commissioned by the prostate cancer charity on behalf of the others, and suggests patients do want a part in shaping VBP.
The new system is set to replace the 50-year old PPRS, which allows pharma to set its own prices and then have its medicines assessed by NICE.
From 1 January 2014, the government plans to set prices for new treatments based on how it values a drug, taking into account elements such as benefit to patients and encouraging ‘breakthrough’ medicines addressing areas of unmet need.
Prostate Cancer UK chief executive Owen Sharp said: “Whilst we welcome efforts to move away from the current wieldy process of pricing drugs, it is clear that a new system which better reflects the value medicines bring to patients cannot be achieved if patients are not included in the process.”
He added that patients have “the experience, the knowledge and above all the desire” to help develop a better system than PPRS.
The report’s key points for action are:
- Set up a new representative body in the UK to strengthen the voice of patients over the issue of drug appraisal
- Give drugs which improve people’s quality of life – or which give them extra time at the end of life – the greatest value under VBP, with reductions in pain and fatigue as a high priority
- Reform of PPRS must lead to ‘significant’ improvements in access to clinically effective drugs across the UK
- Proposals to give a higher value to drugs aimed at helping people back to work may be detrimental to cancer patients, many of whom have either already retired or are too unwell to work.
Adam Hill
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