Role of public and press key to ensuring funding u-turn on Kadcyla, says Roche's Deborah Lancaster

In a claim that will make patient groups, PR companies and communication teams at pharma companies sit up and listen, the market access director for Swiss pharma giant Roche (SIX: ROG) has said that pressure from the public and media was key to an innovative cancer drug being made available for Scottish women on the National Health Service (NHS).

Health technology assessment (HTA) bodies are often tied to strict cost-effectiveness thresholds such as the quality adjusted life years (QALYs) measure employed by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) over the border in England.

"With the UK being such an R&D leader, it doesn’t sit right that patients can’t have access to the benefits accrued by the research"