£600 million cancer drug fund for UK cancer patients

By Dr. Ananya Mandal, MDOct 27 2010

Good news for cancer patients in England, the government has announced that it would fulfill a pledge to set up a drugs fund. Earlier the Department of Health promised the extra funding after a report revealed the low level of spending in the UK on cancer medication compared to the rest of Europe.

The funding initiative is worth £200 million a year from April 2011 until the end of March 2014 - a total of £600 million over the three years. An interim £50 million emergency fund was set up on 1^st October to bridge the gap until the main scheme starts in the spring.

According to Health Secretary, Andrew Lansley the aim was to empower patients and give them more control over their healthcare. “I pledged to create a cancer drugs fund so that cancer sufferers and their families could benefit from drugs that their doctors believe could improve their quality of life,” he said.

The report that resulted in this response was published during the summer by Professor Sir Mike Richards, the National Cancer Director. It showed that UK ranked low against other major countries in its spending on new cancer drugs launched during the last five years. In the White Paper Equity and Excellence: Liberating the NHS, the government acknowledged that death rates from some cancers in the UK were among the worst in the developed world.

Lansley said, “This £200 million a year funding over three years for cancer drugs is a crucial step forward in addressing the disparity in patients' access to cancer drugs in England compared to other countries.”

Under this scheme NHS doctors or cancer specialists can apply to a local board for funding on behalf of their patients to obtain medications that have not been approved by the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE). Clinicians can still apply locally to Primary Care Trusts for exceptional funding of drugs not normally available.

According to Hilary Tovey, policy manager at Cancer Research UK, “This cancer drugs fund could make a real difference for some cancer patients, allowing them to get the treatments they need. It’s crucial that cancer patients have easy access to the best drugs and that the way this happens is transparent and easy for doctors and patients to understand…How this fund operates will be crucial to its success. All patients - wherever they live - must be able to access this fund in a clear and consistent way. Its use will need to be carefully monitored, so we can be sure it’s being used in the way that benefits patients most.”

The Department of Health promised that in the long term it intends to improve patient access to medications by changing the way the NHS pays for branded drugs in 2014.