Cancer Drugs Fund inquiry
Closed
What the inquiry looked at
“The Government set up the Cancer Drugs Fund in 2010 to improve access to cancer drugs that would not otherwise be routinely available on the NHS. The Fund will run until March 2016 and has a total lifetime budget of £1.27 billion. 51% of the patients supported by the Fund between April 2013 and March 2015 accessed drugs that were appraised by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) but not recommended for routine NHS commissioning because they did not meet its clinical and/or cost-effectiveness thresholds. The remaining patients accessed drugs that were in the process of being appraised, or had not been appraised, by NICE. 35% budget overspend Between 2013-14 and 2014-15, NHS England overspent the allocated budget for the Fund by 35% and the cost of the Fund rose by £241 million. Despite the growing cost of the Fund, the NHS are not able to evaluate whether the Fund has had any impact on patient outcomes. In March 2015, it took action and stopped providing access to some drugs after a review of clinical effectiveness and cost. It is clear the Fund is not sustainable in its current form. In Autumn 2015, NHS England will consult on proposals that the Fund should become a 'managed access' fund that pays for promising new drugs for a set period before NICE decides whether the drugs should be routinely available on the NHS, and no longer provide drugs that have not been recommended by NICE. This inquiry challenges the Department for Health and NHS England on the lack the data available to assess the effectiveness of the Cancer Drugs Fund and whether it is the best way to care for patients, and how Department, NHS England, NICE and pharmaceutical companies can work together to ensure the Cancer Drugs Fund is sustainable.”
The committee's words, from the inquiry page on parliament.uk ↗.
What it found
Survival rates for cancer patients in England have generally been worse than those in other high-income countries in Europe, mainly because patients in England tend to be diagnosed later and have poorer access to treatment. The government set up the Cancer Drugs Fund in 2010 to improve access to cancer drugs that would not otherwise be routinely available on the NHS. In the last five years about 80,000 people received drugs through the Fund. However, the Department of Health and NHS England do not have the data needed to assess the impact of the Fund on patient outcomes, such as extending patients’ lives, or to demonstrate whether this is a good use of taxpayers’ money. NHS England overspent the Fund’s £480 million budget for the two years 2013–14 and 2014– 15 by £167 million. The cost of the Fund grew from £175 million in 2012–13 to £416 million in 2014–15, an increase of 138% in two years, but NHS England did not start to take action to control the cost until November 2014. There is agreement that the Fund is not sustainable in its current form and NHS England and the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) are currently consulting on proposals to reform the Fund from April 2016. We expect NHS England, in making changes, to take account of our recommendations and apply the clear lessons from the last five years to ensure that the new Fund is managed better in the future.
What the government said
No government response is linked to this report.
How the inquiry ran
Each dot is a dated item listed on this page, from the inquiry's opening on 3 November 2015 to 31 October 2016.
- Oral evidence 30 Nov 2015
- Report 5 Feb 2016
- Correspondence 31 Oct 2016
What it recommended
The committee's recommendations are not listed here yet. Read them in 20th Report - Cancer Drugs Fund ↗ on parliament.uk.
Evidence
Oral evidence sessions 1
- 30 Nov 2015No witnesses recordedparliament.uk ↗