The new Cancer Drug Fund (CDF) has promised clearer, faster decision making but is that the case?
For those who may not be familiar to the CDF in the UK it was put in place to allow for a faster access to specific Oncology drugs which showed positive results at early clinical trials. The cost effectiveness watchdog would appraise and provide interim funding for any drug affiliated with the programme for two years. The CDF was reformed earlier this year.
The appraisal for the drug would start earlier and the aim would be to give a verdict before the drug is licenced. In theory this could accelerate treatments by up to 4 months.
The re-designed CDF started in July and has 4 drugs on the scheme; Novartis' Zykadia (ceritinib) for lung cancer and melanoma combination, Tafinlar (dabrafenib) and Mekinist (trametinib), and Servier's Lonsurf (trifluridine/tipiracil HCl) for bowel cancer.
There have already been issues pointed out claiming that the CDF is still too closely related to the NICE, as it was originally set up due to the fact that NICE methodology was not working for Oncology products.
What are your thoughts around this topic?
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7yHi Samad, thanks for sharing this interesting post! People are really suffering due to slow access of oncological drugs -at Change.org for example there are a number of petitions on this. One particular drug that comes to mind is Nivolumab (of which approval is continuously delayed by NICE and heartbreaking for those affected). Of course, research and trials are vital, but if you have any ideas at all on the Nivolumab case, or how to improve this landscape, I would be really keen to hear. Thanks again.