England's Cancer Drugs Fund (CDF)
has been sliding down a slippery slope lately, dealing with budget
overruns and backlash from drugmakers and patients unhappy with the
fund's decision to ax certain meds from its list. Now, in light of these
problems, the country's cost watchdogs are planning to take the reins
and give the fund a much-needed makeover.
The National Institute of Health and Care Excellence (NICE)
will turn the CDF into a "managed access" fund for cancer drugs,
setting out "clear entry and exit criteria" to determine which meds
should be funded, according to a recent NHS England board meeting paper.
Instead of simply rejecting a drug outright, like the CDF does now,
NICE will give "conditional approval" to a med while it weighs evidence.
At the end of a waiting period, the drug will go through a shortened
approval process. A cancer med will either get a positive
recommendation, moving into mainstream use, or a negative
recommendation, which would restrict the drug to individual patients.
NHS England will release its plans for a new CDF model to the public
in September 2015, it said in its board meeting paper. The current CDF
fund is set to end in March 2016, and if everything goes accordingly, a
new model should be in place by next April, it added.
No comments:
Post a Comment