NICE chief accepts Herceptin funding worries

The chief executive of the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) has admitted that some NHS trusts and hospitals may find it difficult to afford Herceptin in the midst of budget deficits.

Herceptin, the Roche drug, has for some years been approved for advanced metastatic HER-2 positive breast cancer, but was last week given draft guidance by NICE for use on patients with early-stage HER-2 positive breast cancer ? a disease that accounts for approximately a fifth of all women with breast cancer.

Andrew Dillon, the NICE chief executive, told Channel Four’s Evening News: “It is going to be a decision that’s going to have to be looked at very carefully by NHS organisations, and they’re going to have to work out how to plan their funding allocations for Herceptin into their current budgets.”

“So it’s an issue, but they can be confident that in doing so they’re spending money on a drug that’s effective.”

A full year’s treatment for Herceptin is expected to cost approximately 20,000 pounds. Nigel Edwards of the NHS Confederation told the same programme: “They may need to stop spending on other things to fund this drug, but that’s what they’re required to do.”

Despite the warnings of cost pressures on the NHS, the introduction of Herceptin has been broadly welcomed by patient groups and cancer charities.

The government’s national cancer director, Professor Mike Richard, told BBC One’s Breakfast programme that NICE’s decision “really was very good news”.

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