7 August 2015 - Just as decades of pioneering cancer research are bearing fruit, we are seeing drug after drug deemed too costly for NHS patients and rejected by NICE.

This week has seen two highly innovative drugs hit the headlines – Olaparib, which is under review by NICE for BRCA-mutant ovarian cancer, and nivolumab, which had been available to NHS patients with lung cancer via an early-access scheme but has now been withdrawn until NICE can assess it for cost-effectiveness.

Olaparib is the first cancer drug to be approved that is directed against an inherited genetic mutation – and its development was underpinned by science, much of which was carried out at The Institute of Cancer Research in London. Research shows it could be beneficial to around 700 women with ovarian cancer each year. But Olaparib has been rejected by NICE pending the announcement of final guidance, albeit with the possibility that some although not all of these women may eventually be able to get it.

For more details, go to: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/nhs/11790622/NHS-cancer-drug-approval-needs-radical-change.html