NHS Cancer Drugs Fund ‘failed to deliver benefits’

The NHS Cancer Drugs Fund did not deliver the promised benefits and may have exposed patients to harm in certain cases, according to a new report.

Analysis from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and King's College London has delivered a negative outlook on the overall legacy of the scheme, which was introduced by the government in 2011.

Looking at 29 drugs that had been approved for use through the fund in January 2015 for 47 specific cancer conditions, it was found that only 18 of the indications were based on clinical evidence of a statistically significant benefit in terms of overall survival rates.

In fact, the benefit to patients in real world situations was probably even less, since clinical trial participants are carefully selected. It is also likely that patients suffered unnecessarily from toxic side effects of the unproven drugs.

The report concluded that other countries should not seek to emulate this system, which bypassed traditional regulatory approval processes with little benefit. It also criticised the revamped version of the scheme, introduced in July 2016, for seemingly prioritising cancer over all other treatments in terms of NHS spending.

Joint study leader Professor Richard Sullivan, director of the Institute of Cancer Policy at King's College London, said: "Our findings underline the importance of reimbursement decisions for all drugs, procedures and interventions in cancer care being made through appropriate health technology appraisal processes."

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