The NHS drugs watchdog have today announced that there will be some hope for terminal cancer sufferers in 2009, as certain previously unavailable drugs will be offered to people with specific types of cancer.
Chairman of the National Institute for Clinical Excellence, Professor Sir Michael Rawlins, revealed new rules would apply when doctors deem which drugs should be used for which patients. NICE were previously
criticised for not allowing certain drugs to be used to help improve life quality and lengthen lives as they were considered to be too expensive.
Sir Michael announced that NICE have reviewed the system and the importance of helping people to prolong their lives, “We appreciate these extra weeks and months can be very special,” he told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme. “We are proposing to provide our advisory bodies with supplementary advice in these sort of circumstances which will have the effect of extending the threshold range of what we would normally regard as being cost-effective.”
The new guidelines, which will be published and issued on 2 January, will focus on drug therapy for rare types of cancers, and will come into effect immediately. However, Sir Michael advised that not all drugs would be included in the new guidelines as some would still be considered not cost effective. “We are not proposing to extend this to all conditions. Frankly, it would cost the health service hundreds of millions of pounds if we were to do that,” he said.
In addition Sir Michael said that NICE were looking into improving the efficiency and speed of the process where drugs are assessed for use on the NHS.
