Price drops make more cancer drugs routinely available

The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) is half way through a review of drugs approved and still available only through the old Cancer Drugs Fund (CDF). In all cases so far where NICE has been able to make recommendations for routine NHS use, companies have reviewed and reduced their prices, and in some cases provided clearer evidence.

NICE is appraising 24 drugs across 33 cancer indications that have been supplied to patients who applied for conditional funding through the CDF. Recent guidance recommends cetuximab (Erbitux) and panitumumab (Vectibix), for bowel cancer, move from the CDF into routine use. This means that, so far, 14 drugs (across 18 indications) have received approval for routine NHS use.

NICE Chief Executive Sir Andrew Dillon said: "As drugs move off the CDF, we free up funding for new drugs coming down the pipeline, so patients will have faster access to promising cancer drugs and the NHS makes the most of its resources."