Pressure mounts on UK government on future of the Cancer Drugs Fund

A new survey in the UK has found that four in five adults want the National Health Service to offer levels of access to treatment at least comparable with other countries. Half believe the NHS should be a world leader in the treatments available to patients and should pay for all treatments regardless of how much they cost, going beyond international standard practice. The survey was commissioned by European pharma majors Novartis, Roche and Sanofi.

The findings increase the pressure on the government to make clear its plans for the Cancer Drugs Fund, as the current arrangements are due to come to an end in early 2014. Since its introduction, the Cancer Drugs Fund has enabled more than 30,000 patients to access medicines that would otherwise be unobtainable. It has been estimated that 16,000 patients a year would be denied access to cancer medicines without the Cancer Drugs Fund.

Key findings from the survey include: