Eisai slams new Cancer Drugs Fund for delaying patient access
pharmafile | February 26, 2016 | News story | Research and Development, Sales and Marketing | Cancer Drugs Fund, Eisai, Lenvima
Eisai has aimed strong criticism at NHS England for its approval of reforms to the Cancer Drugs Fund, calling the decision a failure that would further delay access to a number of new cancer treatments and set back cancer treatment in the country to its level prior to the Fund’s implementation in 2011.
The company, headquartered in Japan, said its thyroid cancer drug Lenvima (lenvatinib) has been “stuck in limbo” as a result of the consultation period on the reforms between September 2015 and mid-February this year, and criticised the fact that patients in England may have to wait an “unspecified period” in order to access the drug, despite the fact that it may delay median progression of the disease to 18.3, from 3.6 months with placebo.
Gary Hendler, CEO Eisai EMEA and president, Global Oncology Business Unit, comments: “The decision to implement the new CDF pretty much as it was proposed in the consultation will put cancer treatment back to where England was prior to the creation of the Fund which is a tragedy for patients. Time is not a luxury that these patients have. I implore NHS England to rethink the decision around access to drugs that have been licensed since May 2015 to ensure important treatments like lenvatinib are made available to people as soon as possible. This is a drug that is manufactured in Hertfordshire, exported across the world, and yet people in England are denied access to it. This is an utterly disgraceful situation.”
The company noted that new licensed drugs that have been denied access since May 2015, will have to wait until at least July 2016 before they can be considered for the new CDF, and called details around this process “vague.”
In addition, Eisai criticised NHS England over the Accelerated Access Review, saying that despite the delays, the Review had “yet to meaningfully demonstrate how people in England will get improved access to cancer medicines.”
Dr Jonathan Wadsley, consultant clinical oncologist, University of Sheffield, comments: “This is devastating news for patients with advanced thyroid cancer. These patients may belong to a small group, only 200 patients per year, but their need is great. Lenvatinib can make a real difference to the lives of patients due to its significant progression free survival benefit and so this news is particularly hard to understand.
“This is hugely disappointing news for people living with thyroid cancer that has proved resistant to usual therapies. There are very few treatment options left for those patients whose thyroid cancer is not responsive to radio-iodine. The fact that an approved treatment exists which could delay progress of their cancer but they are not able to access it is particularly heartbreaking,” adds Kate Farnell MBE, founder of the Butterfly Thyroid Cancer Trust.
Joel Levy
Related Content
Eisai shares new data for Leqembi for Alzheimer’s treatment
Eisai and Biogen have announced that Eisai has shared new data for Leqembi (lecanemab-irmb) 100mg/mL …
FDA grants Alzheimer’s disease drug Leqembi full approval
Japanese pharmaceutical company Eisai and US-based biotechnology company Biogen have announced that the US Food …
Eisai and Wren Therapeutics join forces to tackle neurodegenerative synucleinopathies
Eisai has forged an exclusive research partnership with Wren Therapeutics to develop new approaches in …
