Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask Her Majesty’s Government how many patients they expect to benefit from the latest cancer medicines as a result of the proposals for a revised Cancer Drugs Fund to be effective from 1 April.

We have made no such assessment.

NHS England and the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) recently consulted on draft proposals for the future direction of the Cancer Drugs Fund (CDF). 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. The consultation closed on 11 February 2016.

NHS England has advised that the operational detail of the new scheme will be developed over the coming months, informed by detailed analysis and consideration of the consultation responses received. A new Standard Operating Procedure for the CDF will be published by June 2016. Any changes to the list of available treatments through the Fund as a result of the changes in model will be published in due course.

NHS England has advised that it is optimistic that a greater number of cancer drugs will be funded from baseline commissioning in the future as a consequence of more appropriate pricing arrangements proposed by pharmaceutical manufacturers and the new CDF being able to address issues as to longer term patient outcomes in order to give such drugs the chance of re-appraisal by NICE with greater certainty as to clinical and cost effectiveness.