Cancer Drugs Fund (England)
An NHS England fund that pays for promising cancer drugs while more evidence is collected, born in 2010 as a political fix for drugs NICE had refused and rebuilt in 2016 into a time-limited managed access scheme with a fixed budget.
Overview
United Kingdom (England), NHS funding scheme. The Cancer Drugs Fund was announced in 2010 and opened in April 2011 with 200 million pounds a year to pay for cancer medicines not routinely available on the NHS; after its cost rose to 340 million pounds and a 2015 National Audit Office review found no data on outcomes, it was reformed from July 2016 into a managed access fund run with NICE. Primary text: NICE's managed access pages set out the current arrangements; the Wikipedia article covers the history.
How it works now: when a NICE appraisal finds a cancer drug plausibly cost-effective but the evidence too uncertain, it can recommend entry into the fund under a managed access agreement, usually for around two years, during which the drug is funded for NHS patients while data are collected through the Systemic Anti-Cancer Therapy dataset and ongoing trials; NICE then re-appraises and recommends routine commissioning or not. The fund has a fixed budget of 340 million pounds with an expenditure control mechanism that rebates companies if it is exceeded, and a matching Innovative Medicines Fund was created for non-cancer medicines in 2022.
The arguments: the original fund was criticised by health economists for paying, without evidence, prices that NICE had judged not worth it, and for favouring cancer over other diseases; the reformed fund is credited with giving patients early access to drugs such as pembrolizumab and CAR-T therapies while resolving uncertainty, and most drugs that leave it have been recommended for routine use. Whether managed access changes the price companies ask, and whether two years is enough for survival data, remain open questions.
Similar pages
not linked directly; found by shared links- TermMedicines and Medical Devices Act 2021
Shares ILAP (Innovative Licensing and Access Pathway) and the tags law, uk.
- TermUK Data Protection Act 2018 and health data law
Shares Weak real-world evidence and registries and the tags law, uk.
- TermFrance: early access (accès précoce), formerly ATU
Shares Conditional marketing authorisation (EU), ILAP (Innovative Licensing and Access Pathway), Health technology assessment (HTA), reimbursement and QALYs, Weak real-world evidence and registries and the tag law.
- TermMedicare coverage with evidence development
Shares Indication withdrawal, Health technology assessment (HTA), reimbursement and QALYs, Weak real-world evidence and registries, Real-world evidence and the tag law.
- TermFDORA 2022 accelerated approval reforms
Shares Full (traditional, regular) approval, Conditional marketing authorisation (EU), Indication withdrawal, Accelerated approval and the tag law.
- TermJapan conditional early approval and time-limited approval
Shares Full (traditional, regular) approval, Conditional marketing authorisation (EU), Accelerated approval and the tag law.
- TermEU HTA Regulation (EU) 2021/2282: joint clinical assessments
Shares NICE technology appraisal methods (2022), Health technology assessment (HTA), reimbursement and QALYs, Quality of life and patient-reported outcomes (QoL, PRO), Prices and value and the tag law.
- TermAMNOG (Germany, 2011)
Shares NICE technology appraisal methods (2022), Health technology assessment (HTA), reimbursement and QALYs, Prices and value and the tag law.