19
Jan 2017
Life-extending breast cancer drug set to be withdrawn from NHS
The life-extending drug, Kadcyla, has been rejected by NICE for NHS use in England, believing that the price is too expensive.
In clinical trials, Kadcyla, which costs an average of £90,000 per patient, was found to extend terminal breast cancer patients’ lives by around six months, and also dramatically improves the patient’s quality of life compared to other treatments.
The drug was available through a cancer drugs fund since 2014, a fund which was established by the government to enable patients in England to access expensive drugs which were not routinely available on the NHS.
The fund was replaced with a new funding approach in 2016.
Dr Mei-Lin Ah-See, clinical oncology consultant at the Mount Vernon Cancer Centre, said of the failure of NIC to approve the drug “It not only comes at the expense of survival for our patients, but would come at the price of toxicity”.
NICE’s Carole Longson, said they “know how important it is for people with breast cancer that they have access to life-extending treatments, but the reality is the cost of this drug is too high relative to those benefits for it to be recommended for routine use.”
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Posted by Karen Motley, Paralegal, Clinical Negligence Department, Chadwick Lawrence LLP (karenmotley@chadlaw.co.uk), medical negligence lawyers and clinical negligence solicitors in Huddersfield, Leeds, Wakefield and Halifax, West Yorkshire.
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