An open letter from ABPI Chief Executive, Stephen Whitehead, to the Secretary of State for Health, Jeremy Hunt MP, following recent media coverage of changes to the Cancer Drugs Fund (CDF) announced by NHS England.

Dear Secretary of State,

The recent media furore over access to cancer medicines in the UK is in danger of creating too much heat and not enough light. The Cancer Drugs Fund was bravely introduced by the Prime Minister to enable patients to have access to cancer medicines that are routinely available in other EU countries. The fund has gone some of the way to address this although the UK still lags behind Germany, France and Italy as regards the access to medicines for patients in need despite the fact that the price of branded medicines in the UK is still amongst the lowest in Europe.

For years NICE struggled with evaluating cancer medicines and aligning with iterative scientific developments that can improve outcomes for patients. The CDF was a political stop gap until the Lansley proposed Value Based Pricing was developed to address the issue; VBP failed to materialise. The problem has now been handed to NHS England to sort and recent proposals fall well short of addressing the historical problem. Indeed, they threaten to take the UK back to a time of clear rationing of cancer medicines. This is another short term solution to a long term challenge, which threatens patients’ access to much needed medicines.

For more details, go to: http://www.abpi.org.uk/media-centre/newsreleases/2014/Pages/141114.aspx