Posted by Michael Wonder on 13 Nov 2016
Price cuts pave the way for routine access to breast and lung cancer drugs
10 November 2016 - People with breast cancer and lung cancer will have routine access to two life-extending treatments after the makers agreed to reduce their prices to make them cost effective.
NICE has today published draft guidance recommending everolimus, in combination with exemestance, as an option for some people with HER2-negative, hormone-receptor-positive advanced breast cancer, and crizotinib for treating non-small-cell lung cancer.
The drugs are being looked at as part of NICE’s programme to appraise treatments that were first made available on the Cancer Drugs Fund before it was reformed earlier this year.
Novartis, makers of everolimus, also known as Afinitor, offered a larger discount to the NHS meaning NICE can now provisionally recommend it for routine funding on the NHS – NICE’s second positive decision on a breast cancer drug in a week.
