Cancer Commissioning—at a global and a local level: London Cancer New Drugs Group Annual Meeting

Patient-access schemes in cancer care

Scheme assessment

Andy Stainthorpe (Associate Director, Patient Access Scheme Liaison Unit) and Helen Knight (Technical Advisor, Centre for Health Technology Evaluation) entered the LCNDG lions’ den to defend the role of new cancer drug assessment by NICE.

Patient-access schemes (PASs), proposed by pharmaceutical companies, are designed to enable patients to receive access to cost-effective innovative drugs. The PAS Liaison Unit (PASLU) assesses the cost to the NHS of administering such schemes, how robust and plausible they are and whether or not they meet an unmet clinical need.

However, neither PASLU nor NICE is involved in the development of individual PASs. Mr Stainthorpe said that while there was the potential for a number of PAS initiatives, he did not anticipate being trampled in the rush for PAS applications.

Ms Knight maintained that the introduction of PASs would have a minimal impact on NICE technology appraisals. To date, eight such schemes have been appraised, of which four received positive guidance. Three of the four approved schemes also met the supplementary NICE end-of-life criteria.

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