Lord Clement-Jones – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Clement-Jones on 2016-02-22.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the impact on patients of the pause in listing new drugs accessible through the Cancer Drugs Fund introduced in June 2015.

Lord Prior of Brampton

We have made no such assessment.

As part of its work to reprioritise the Cancer Drugs Fund (CDF) 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 outlined 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.