Posted by Michael Wonder on 15 Jan 2018
Scottish Medicines Consortium rejects cancer drugs for routine use on NHS
15 January 2018 - Drugs used to treat two rare cancers have been turned down for routine use by the NHS in Scotland.
The SMC advised against the medicines as it ruled the cost outweighed the benefits, despite being allowed more flexibility around the decision since they are used to treat very rare and end-of-life conditions.
One of the drugs, nivolumab, also known as Opdivo, was not recommended as a routine treatment for advanced bladder cancer but was approved by the SMC last July for use on the NHS in Scotland to treat Hodgkin lymphoma, a cancer of the white blood cells.
