Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what criteria will be applied to select products for possible delisting from the Cancer Drugs Fund in July; and in particular what is the scoring system that will be used.

The criteria and scoring system for reviewing the current listed drugs within the Cancer Drugs Fund (CDF) is outlined in the published CDF Standard Operating Procedure which is available at: www.england.nhs.uk/ourwork/pe/cdf/. These state that:

“Decisions will be based on the National Cancer Drugs Fund Prioritisation Tool in conjunction with an assessment of median drug cost per patient. This evaluation will be completed for each drug/indication under consideration and will result in an overall score based on a number of factors, including:

o evidence of clinical benefit e.g. progression free survival (PFS) and overall survival (OS)

o quality of life (QOL)

o toxicity

o unmet need

o median drug cost per patient

Drugs on the National CDF List will be subject to an affordability test within the overall CDF budget, being added or removed according to their relative aggregate score using the National Cancer Drugs Fund Prioritisation Tool of clinical benefit in conjunction with the assessment of drug cost per patient. Drugs whose aggregate score is below the threshold applicable at the time will not be added/will be removed from the National CDF List.”

A copy is attached.

NHS England has advised that the Fund is re-prioritised on a regular basis so that the resources available are used to the best benefit of patients.