HEALTH chiefs have rebuffed terminal cancer patients’ plea for new drugs and instead offered a two-year review that will take longer than many have left to live. NHS watchdog NICE, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence, insisted its new system of approving medicines is “working as intended”. Charities and manufacturers have accused it of setting an “impossibly high bar” for new medicines for people with incurable tumours.
Drugs for some patients with breast cancer and blood cancer myeloma have been rejected under the new system. A new way of judging value for money judged them to be too expensive for the benefits. At a board meeting on Wednesday, NICE refused to lower its threshold or push through the drugs, Enhertu and IsaPD.
Read more on breast cancer It said it would review the process but the work could take two years – longer than most incurable patients have left to live. Patients may see this as kicking the issue into the long grass Claire Rowney, chief executive of the charity Breast Cancer Now, said: “We are deeply disappointed. “The decision tragically marks a missed opportunity to offer a lifeline to thousands of people living with incurable breast cancer.
“Instead, they and their families face the heartbreaking reality of continuing to be denied the hope of six months more to live.” Most read in Health Paul Catchpole, of the Association for the British Pharmaceutical Industry, said: “We are disappointed but not surprised by th.