ABPI speaks out against changes to UK Cancer Drugs Fund medicines list

The Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry has spoken out against imminent changes to how NHS England (NHSE) will re-evaluate the medicines currently offered under the Cancer Drugs Fund.

Paul Catchpole, director of value and access at the ABPI, said: “We are very disappointed that NHSE did not address the concerns raised by the ABPI and pharmaceutical companies before finalizing its proposals for how CDF medicines will be re-evaluated. Such a re-evaluation process would not be necessary in the first place if NICE (the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence) quickly evolves the way it evaluates cancer medicines as part of more fundamental reforms. NICE themselves recognized, in the recent Value based Assessment consultation, that changes are needed and we would like to see this avenue being progressed urgently rather than putting an alternative and parallel process in place within NHS England.”

He went on to dismiss the proposed mechanism to evaluate drugs as “crude” and said there was a risk that, in evaluating cancer medicines in this way, it will overlook important costs and benefits, potentially leading to misleading conclusions being drawn. The worst outcome, he said, would be that NHS patients are denied access to the Cancer Drugs Fund medicines that provide significant health benefit.