We want the Government to provide additional funding for prescriptions for cancer drugs that are made outside of market authorisations or aren't recommended for use by NICE, so that patients can more easily access potentially life-saving drugs.
It is possible for drugs to be prescribed outside of their recommended use by NICE and market authorisation, but cost can be a barrier to such prescriptions being made by the NHS.
While the Cancer Drugs Fund was created to increase access to new drugs, we believe the Government must do more to ensure that funding is not a barrier to patients being prescribed potentially live-saving drugs. For example, some Bispecific and CAR-T therapies are authorised in the USA and EU for follicular lymphoma, but are not available on the NHS. Around 2,300 people are diagnosed here every year with FL but do not have ready access to the latest treatments.