Cancer Medicines: Appraisals

Debate between Andrew Gwynne and Tracey Crouch

Tuesday 13th June 2023 Westminster Hall

[Andrew Gwynne (Denton and Reddish) (Lab)]

It is a pleasure, as ever, to serve under your chairmanship, Mrs Harris, and to respond to this debate on behalf of the shadow Health and Social Care team.

I begin by congratulating the hon. Member for Strangford (Jim Shannon), who I call my hon. Friend, on securing this important debate, and I thank him for his tireless work campaigning on such issues.

Also, I pay tribute to my hon. Friend the Member for Mitcham and Morden (Siobhain McDonagh) for the powerful case that she put to the Minister in respect of brain tumours generally and specifically the glioblastoma manifesto. I very much hope that the Minister is able to take up her challenge, because the inequalities in outcomes that she laid out are unacceptable. In the year 2023, we should not be looking at a situation in which there have been zero improvements in life expectancy from cancers such as glioblastoma since 2005-06 when we have seen dramatic improvements in the other areas that she mentioned. We owe it to Baroness McDonagh—Margaret McDonagh—and to others such as Tessa Jowell to ensure that we see improvements in this area, too.

As for the hon. Member for Chatham and Aylesford (Tracey Crouch), she said herself that she has been on the cancer treadmill, and it is lovely to see her back in her place and up to her old usual tricks. We welcome her.

[Tracey Crouch]

I just want to say that I was never not in my place; I was fortunate enough to go through cancer treatment during covid, when we were all working under a hybrid procedure. Actually, that experience has helped to form some of the contributions that I have made to the Procedure Committee about how we in this place support people who are going through significant illnesses.

[Andrew Gwynne]

Absolutely—the virtual Parliament hid a multitude of sins. I know that as somebody who struggled with long covid through that period. Many people would not have known just how ill I was, because I just appeared on a screen. However, it is nice to see the hon. Lady in person; I should put it like that. And she was entirely right to say that cancer touches us all, which is why we can all cite personal experiences of it. I lost my mum to ovarian cancer when I was 19; she was just 50. I lost my dad last year to rectal cancer. I am not alone; we all have people, including close family members and friends, who we have lost to cancer.

I also pay tribute to the hon. Member for Midlothian (Owen Thompson), who responded on behalf of the SNP, for his contribution to the debate and to the right hon. Member for Dwyfor Meirionnydd (Liz Saville Roberts), for her intervention.

I am sure that I speak for everybody from all parties in the House when I say that ensuring that patients have quick access to the most innovative and effective treatments is an absolute priority. This country has a proud history of medical innovation, a reputation that we should try not only to protect but to enhance, as we have already heard today.

We are talking today about the appraisal process for cancer patients, which, as we have also heard, has changed markedly over recent years in several areas. We have seen increased focus on targeted treatments and immunotherapies, as well as reform of the cancer drugs fund in 2016, a move that was taken to improve people’s access to cancer drugs while allowing NICE to collate more information on potential areas of clinical uncertainty.

In a recent report, the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry highlighted that 78% of medicines have been able to exit the cancer drugs fund with a positive recommendation, with most of them spending about two and a half years in the CDF process. It also recognised improvements as a result of the relaunched CDF, but raised concerns that the CDF has

“perhaps been overly relied upon”

in order to

“delay making routine recommendations.”

It states that

“a new balance may need to be struck between NICE and manufacturers in considering which treatments should enter the CDF to resolve genuine uncertainty surrounding long-term clinical outcomes and for how long.”

Given that NICE recently set out specific circumstances when committees may be able to accept a higher degree of uncertainty in routine commissioning decisions, can the Minister set out whether his Department has assessed the ABPI’s findings and whether more can be done to improve access to innovative treatments for patients via routine commissioning? That links to a wider point that I wish to raise on clinical research and trials.

Clinical trials provide an opportunity for the NHS, businesses and brilliant researchers to work together for the benefit of everyone. Unfortunately, however, in recent years the UK trials industry has collapsed. The number of commercial trials in the United Kingdom decreased by 41% between 2017 and 2021. Worryingly, the UK has dropped from fourth to 10th in the global rankings, behind Spain, France and Italy. Of most concern is that in 2020-21, the NHS lost £447 million in revenue due to a drop-off in clinical commercial trial activity. Those figures should seriously worry the Minister. They risk putting patients at a disadvantage for all kinds of innovative treatments, including cancer medicines.

In Labour’s recent health mission, we committed to putting Britain right at the front of the queue for new medicines and vaccines. Alongside our pledge to spend 3% of GDP on research and development across the public and private sectors, we want our clinical trials to be more competitive, efficient and accessible. Making those ambitions a reality means tackling unnecessary bureaucracy in how trials are set up and reducing the administrative burden on everyone involved in the clinical trial, including the NHS. Will the Minister set out how his Government plan to reverse the drop-off in clinical research and trials—a drop-off that is costing our NHS financially and clinically?

Finally, I want to touch on the issue of patient access to innovative medicines, including for cancer patients. In 2021, in its “Life Sciences Vision”, the Government committed to identifying and addressing “unwarranted variation” in the uptake of innovative medicines. But in February this year, in the innovation scorecard commissioned on behalf of the Department of Health and Social Care, it was found that a number of areas were still falling short of the NICE recommended levels of new medicine uptake.

Will the Minister provide an update on what work he is doing to improve regional variation in uptake of innovative medicines so that no matter where someone lives, they can access the treatment they need when they need it. Will he also commit to improving the data collected as part of the innovation scorecard to include information on cancer medicines so that we can meaningfully assess uptake and isolate areas for improvement where necessary? That is something that the life sciences sector has called for, so I would welcome more information on that from the Minister.

In conclusion, Labour is wholly committed to ensuring that cancer patients in this country receive access to the very best medicine and care. That means ensuring that appraisals for cancer medicines remain fit for purpose and adapt in line with evolving technologies and scientific advancements. It also means turbocharging clinical trials and tackling the unacceptable gaps in access to cutting-edge treatment. In his response, I hope that the Minister will meet the ambition set out by the Labour party and that we can work together towards making Britain a world leader in cancer care and treatment, because we owe it to all those people on the treadmill right now.