English receive extra L50M for cancer fund
Britain's coalition government plans to introduce a fund to provide English cancer patients faster access to new drugs that have not been sanctioned by NICE. Health Secretary Andrew Lansley said that, starting in October, an extra L50 million ($77.3 million) will be available to help patients get access to new cancer drugs, six months ahead of a L200 million per year Cancer Drugs Fund to be launched in April 2011.
Lansley's announcement came as the Department of Health published a report showing that British consumption of cancer drugs launched in the past five years is well below that of comparative nations. The U.K. ranked 12 out of 14 countries surveyed when it came to the new cancer drugs, although it fared much better when it came to providing drugs such as statins and treatments for myocardial infarction. ...