8 July 2016 - Japan's Eisai said on Friday it would consider all options, including possible legal action, to fight delays in Britain's health care system that prevent patients from accessing one of its drugs to treat a rare form of cancer.

The move highlights frustration among drugmakers at the way the National Health Service restricts access to new drugs, especially ones for cancer that can cost tens of thousands of pounds a year.

Eisai's drug Lenvima treats a form of thyroid cancer and was approved by the European Commission in May 2015, but it will not receive a recommendation from Britain's NICE until at least April 2017.

Lenvima is not included in the government's re-launched Cancer Drugs Fund and, as a result, it will have to wait its turn to be assessed by the cost-effectiveness watchdog NICE.

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