The NHS has announced that reforms to the Cancer Drugs Fund are underway with extra funding and a re-evaulation of the way drugs are approved for funding.
Professor Peter Clark, Chair of the Cancer Drugs Fund (CDF), has written to NHS England chief executive Simon Stevens recommending CDF's panel of experts re-evaluate a number of drugs currently on the list.
Clark has called for evidence-based decisions about what will deliver greatest benefit to patients. NHS England has accepted and agreed these proposals.
Stevens has also asked Clark to work with NICE, patient groups and the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry (ABPI) to develop options for ensuring greater alignment between CDF and NICE assessment processes.
The CDF panel will also develop options for a new Evaluation through Commissioning scheme.
This would allow the evaluation of the clinical effectiveness of promising new drugs, which are not currently supported by enough evidence to allow NICE to recommend they are made routinely available.
Stevens said such changes will lead to "responsible pricing" of drugs by pharmaceutical companies.
Meanwhile, as part of the reforms, thousands more cancer patients in England will be offered vital treatments in a £160m boost to the Cancer Drugs Fund, Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt has announced.
It will now be increased from £200m a year to £280m a year - meaning many more patients with rare conditions will benefit from life-extending drugs recommended by their doctor.
The fund has helped more than 55,000 cancer patients since it was set up four years ago.
Alongside the injection of funds to help patients, cancer experts at NHS England have added two new drugs, Xtandi (enzalutamide) for prostate cancer and Revlimid (lenalidomide) for a new group of patients with myelodysplastic syndrome, a rare blood condition.
Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt (pictured) said: "By protecting the NHS budget, we have been able to create this fund which has given hope to many thousands of people, their families and friends, and has an essential role in helping us realise our ambition to be the best place in Europe to survive cancer."
NHS England will also negotiate with the pharmaceutical industry on cost to ensure best value for the NHS, and are working with NICE, researchers and patient charities to examine the wider process by which the way the NHS makes commissioning decisions on new cancer drugs.
Following an extension in 2013, the Fund is confirmed until March 2016.
Longer term, the Department of Health said it will "consider carefully" with NHS England the best course of action for the fund in the future.
Mike Hobday, director of policy and research at Macmillan Cancer Support, said:"We are very pleased that the Government has committed to an additional funding of £80 million for the Cancer Drugs Fund, and that it has committed to review the effectiveness of the current drugs on the list.
"Since its introduction, the fund has helped tens of thousands of patients access the vital drugs needed to treat or control their cancer. This new funding will mean that many more can be helped and that we can be confident that valuable NHS money will be targeted on the most effective treatments.
"Macmillan Cancer Support looks forward to working with the Government to continue to examine, and to improve, the wider cancer drugs approval process so that as many cancer patients as possible can access life-extending treatment. This is a key step in helping the Government reach its ambition to have the best cancer survival rates in Europe."
