NHS: NICE-appraised Medicines Debate

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Department: Department of Health and Social Care

Lord Aberdare

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House of Lords

NHS: NICE-appraised Medicines

Lord Aberdare Excerpts

Community Life
Thursday 27th February 2014

(10 years, 9 months ago)

Lords Chamber
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Earl Howe Portrait Earl Howe
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Mesothelioma is a devastating disease, and I certainly undertake to look at the material that the noble Lord has sent me.

Lord Aberdare Portrait Lord Aberdare (CB)
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My Lords, is the noble Earl aware that a new treatment has recently been licensed for advanced pancreatic cancer, offering the greatest improvement in survival of any such treatment in 17 years? Does he share my concern that it needs to be made available to sufferers from the disease as urgently as possible via the Cancer Drugs Fund while awaiting NICE approval?

Earl Howe Portrait Earl Howe
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My Lords, drugs which have not yet been assessed or approved by NICE are eligible for use under the Cancer Drugs Fund. I am pleased to say that the Government have made a total of £1 billion available under that fund and 44,000 patients have been treated under it. I appreciate the noble Lord bringing that particular drug to my attention and I undertake to look at it.

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