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The government is set to threaten to stop buying some expensive cancer drugs if manufacturers do not cut their prices, Newsnight has learned.
The Cancer Drugs Fund (CDF), set up in 2010, allowed patients in England to access drugs that would be deemed too expensive if subjected to the same cost-benefit process as other drugs.
But new proposals, to be revealed on Thursday, suggest the fund needs to be reformed to make it sustainable.
CDF has treated 55,000 patients so far.
Set up by Prime Minister David Cameron, the fund had the political benefit of defusing the damaging arguments that have arisen when officials have denied patients access to expensive cancer treatment to patients on cost-benefit grounds.
But it is now breaching its budget limits, which are set to be expanded on Thursday from £200m a year to £280m. So, civil servants say, it needs to be reformed in order to make it sustainable.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-28938022
The Cancer Drugs Fund (CDF), set up in 2010, allowed patients in England to access drugs that would be deemed too expensive if subjected to the same cost-benefit process as other drugs.
But new proposals, to be revealed on Thursday, suggest the fund needs to be reformed to make it sustainable.
CDF has treated 55,000 patients so far.
Set up by Prime Minister David Cameron, the fund had the political benefit of defusing the damaging arguments that have arisen when officials have denied patients access to expensive cancer treatment to patients on cost-benefit grounds.
But it is now breaching its budget limits, which are set to be expanded on Thursday from £200m a year to £280m. So, civil servants say, it needs to be reformed in order to make it sustainable.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-28938022