Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask Her Majesty’s Government how many cancer medicines launched since June 2015 are available via the Cancer Drugs Fund.

No new cancer medicines have been added to the national Cancer Drugs Fund (CDF) list since June 2015. As part of its work to reprioritise the Fund in 2015-16, NHS England took the decision not to consider new drugs for inclusion on the national CDF list.

NHS England and the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) recently consulted on draft proposals for the future direction of the Fund. The consultation outlines a new system, fully integrated into the NICE appraisal process, where the CDF becomes a transitional fund – with clear criteria for entry and exit.

Clinicians continue to be able to apply for cancer drugs not on the national CDF list through the Individual Cancer Drugs Funding Request procedure.