Site last updated:
December 2011
Cancer Services Forum currently has 2172 registered members
London Cancer New Drugs Group position statement on patient access schemes: expert responses
Share
Response from BOPA
The London Cancer New Drugs Group (LCNDG) has said it will not take into consideration the potential financial impact of a proposed or existing patient access scheme (PAS) relating to any new treatment. In 2008, in its position statement on risksharing schemes in oncology,1 the British Oncology Pharmacy Association (BOPA) warned of many of the issues highlighted by the LCNDG. The BOPA statement noted the following:
• The number of risk-sharing schemes open to the NHS is increasing
• Risk-sharing schemes saved on drug acquisition costs but required significant extra work from pharmacy, finance departments and clinicians
• The cost of such work should be factored into the overall evaluation of the benefits offered by risk-sharing schemes
• The increased administrative, and hence financial, burden could be minimised by active collaboration between the NHS and pharmaceutical manufacturers resulting in mutually acceptable schemes
• A high level of consistency between schemes is crucial to their acceptability
• It is essential to ensure that nationally approved schemes can be easily implemented in a way that genuinely offers the NHS value for money
Although there is now dialogue between the NHS and the pharmaceutical manufacturers—via the Patient Access Scheme Liaison Unit (PASLU) at the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE)—it is not clear that this is an active collaboration aimed at the development of consistent and mutually acceptable schemes.
BOPA remains keen to collaborate actively with all stakeholders to develop schemes that can easily be implemented in the NHS and provide access to treatments for patients while offering true value for money.
Reference
- British Oncology Pharmacy Association. Position statement on “risk sharing” schemes in oncology. Avaliable at: http://www.bopawebsite.org/tiki-page.php?pageName=Position+Statements (accessed April 2010).
David Thomson
Chair, BOPA
Page 2 of 4
Discussion.