Fast-track guidance for life-saving drugs

Patients should be able to receive life-saving drugs more quickly under a new scheme announced by the government.

Health Secretary Patricia Hewitt announced proposals to allow the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence to produce faster guidance on life-saving drugs.

The proposals would allow NICE to produce faster guidance on certain drugs, which had already been licensed and new medicines referred to NICE, meaning that drugs could be assessed within eight weeks of licensing.

NICE is conducting a three-month consultation on the proposals. However, the first five drugs to benefit from the fast-track service have already been identified. They include one treatment for non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma and another for multiple myeloma, as well as three breast cancer drugs, including Herceptin. Herceptin has caused controversy, because it is only currently available for patients with advanced breast cancer, but not for those in the early stages of the disease.

The first guidance is expected next June.

The system will only be used for certain drugs, with all others being assessed under the current system.

Health Minister Jane Kennedy said: “This new guidance will benefit many thousands of patients, especially those with life threatening conditions and will provide greater certainty about the provision of important new treatments.”

However, Liberal Democrat Health Spokesperson Steve Webb said: "The government has at last responded to our calls for a swifter process for approving new drugs for the NHS. But with more and more new drugs being developed, NICE is being asked to do more work. Meanwhile its funding has actually been cut by this government. Ministers must guarantee that NICE will have the cash to implement this new faster process.

(KMcA/SP)