Cancer Drugs Fund

NICE has issued final draft guidance which recommends that Gilead's Zydelig should be made available on the NHS for some adults with chronic lymphocytic leukaemia.

The UK watchdog has recommended Zydelig (idelalisib) when given with the monoclonal antibody rituximab, for adults with chronic lymphocytic leukaemia (CLL) who have a specific genetic change and have not received any other treatment; or for all adults with CLL whose cancer has returned less than 24 months after previous treatment.

More than 10,000 people were able to access Roche's Avastin through the fund between 2013 and 2015

The Cancer Drugs Fund has improved access to treatments, although the UK still lags behind other countries despite its ‘unsustainable’ cost, a report has found.

An investigation by the National Audit Office (NAO), an independent watchdog that scrutinises public spending, looked into questions about the “rationale for the fund and how it relates to mainstream NHS processes” that were identified during an NAO report on cancer outcomes and services published in January.

One of the world’s leading pharma companies in oncology is considering whether to continue investing in clinical trials in the UK, as it cannot justify the expenditure in the face of cuts to the Cancer Drugs Fund.

Two of Celgene’s treatments for multiple myeloma, Revlimid (lenalidomide) and Imnovid (pomalidomide), and its pancreatic cancer treatment Abraxane (nab-paclitaxel), have been de-listed from the CDF in the latest round of funding cuts by NHS England.

NHS England is cutting treatments from the over-budget Cancer Drugs Fund

Several treatments that extend the lives of people with cancer are expected to be removed from the Cancer Drugs Fund from November 1st in the latest round of NHS cuts to hit patients.

As many as 10,000 patients are expected to be affected by the decision to remove treatments from the list NHS England funds for end of life treatments, through the controversial scheme.

NHS England has proposed evaluating CDF treatments in alignment with NICE processes

NICE will oversee the evaluation of Cancer Drugs Fund treatments in future, under new plans due for consultation by NHS England.

After significant pressure from the pharma industry and trade bodies including the ABPI, NHS England has proposed that the ‘operational management’ of a new fund should be ‘aligned with adapted NICE processes’. The changes are a bid to curb the ‘escalating overspend’ of the Cancer Drugs Fund (CDF). Its budget has spiralled from £200 million when it was established in 2010, to £340m in 2015/16.

Bayer is the only company to win its appeal to NHS England in the latest round of Cancer Drugs Fund reviews.

The German firm’s Stivarga (regorafenib) for the treatment of gastrointestinal stromal tumours, will remain on the Fund, while Eisai’s breast cancer medicine Halaven (eribulin) and Lilly’s lung cancer drug Alimta (pemetrexed) lost their appeals and will be dropped in July.

NHS England is expected to perform a U-turn on several decisions to remove treatments from the cancer drugs fund when it publishes its latest CDF list today, Pharmafile has learned.

It has agreed to continue to provide Novartis’ Afinitor (everolimus) for two of the three indications for which it was due to be removed when an updated CDF list was published in January.

NHS England, Quarry House

The chair of NHS England’s cancer drugs fund has said there is likely to be more reviews of affordable treatments in future - and refused to rule out cutting more treatments from the fund.

Professor Peter Clark, a medical oncologist in Merseyside, said the current system for deciding which cancer treatments are available on the NHS is “broken - not logical, robust or rational”. 

As a result, it is likely that the treatments that are on the list will be reviewed again before the fund is set to end in 2016. 

Twenty-five cancer treatments will be removed from the Cancer Drugs Fund list, NHS England has announced.

Having concluded its review of which cancer treatments it can afford to continue funding, NHS England has published a new CDF list – and has removed 16 drugs in 25 indications from the list.