HEALTH chiefs have rebuffed terminal cancer patients’ plea for new drugs and instead offered a two-year review that will take longer than many have left to live.
NHS watchdog NICE, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence, insisted its new system of approving medicines is “working as intended”.
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Charities and manufacturers have accused it of setting an “impossibly high bar” for new medicines for people with incurable tumours.
Drugs for some patients with breast cancer and blood cancer myeloma have been rejected under the new system.
A new way of judging value for money judged them to be too expensive for the benefits.
At a board meeting on Wednesday, NICE refused to lower its threshold or push through the drugs, Enhertu and IsaPD.
Read more on breast cancer
It said it would review the process but the work could take two years – longer than most incurable patients have left to live.
Patients may see this as kicking the issue into the long grass
Paul Catchpole
Claire Rowney, chief executive of the charity Breast Cancer Now, said: “We are deeply disappointed.
“The decision tragically marks a missed opportunity to offer a lifeline to thousands of people living with incurable breast cancer.
“Instead, they and their families face the heartbreaking reality of continuing to be denied the hope of six months more to live.”
Paul Catchpole, of the Association for the British Pharmaceutical Industry, said: “We are disappointed but not surprised by this decision.
“We urge NICE to be more ambitious about how quickly they complete this work.
“Patients may see the proposed two-year timeline as kicking the issue into the long grass.
“Ultimately, government may need to step in.”
NICE said the system is working and more drugs have been approved since it was changed in 2022.
Dr Sam Roberts, chief executive of NICE, admitted the organisation has to make “heartbreaking decisions”.
She said: “The analysis shows the severity modifier is doing what it was designed to do.
“It has allowed treatments for a broader range of severe diseases to be recommended for patients on the NHS.”
‘OUR LIVES WILL BE SHORTER BECAUSE OF THIS’
WOMEN with incurable breast cancer say their lives would be longer had the NHS approved the drug Enhertu for their illness.
Kathryn Hulland (pictured in main article), Alison Jones and Tracy Pratt were all devastated by NICE’s decision not to approve Enhertu for their incurable cancers earlier this year.
All have breast cancer that has returned and cannot be cured, but could be held at bay for longer if they were given access to the medicine.
Kathryn, 45, from Devon, said: “I can’t comprehend how a drug available in Scotland which is extending lives there is unattainable in England and Wales. It makes me feel like my life has a price on it.”
Tracy, 52, from Tydd St Mary in Lincolnshire, said: “I felt completely let down and lost, sad for me, my family, my friends and everyone else in the secondary breast cancer community.”
Alison Jones, aged 60 from Worthing, West Sussex, added: “I felt fear that my life would be shorter because of this decision, I felt helpless.”
