LONDON, Oct 8 (Reuters) - Britain may soon allow top-up payments for costly
cancer drugs within the state health service in a potentially divisive move
highlighting the dilemmas facing cash-strapped social healthcare systems
worldwide.
Mike Richards, the country's National Cancer Director, is due to deliver
a report into "co-payments" this month and is expected to say top-ups should be
allowed in limited circumstances.
A government spokeswoman confirmed his proposals would come in October
but declined to comment on the content.
Allowing top-up payments would be a jolt to Britain's 60-year-old
National Health Service (NHS), which currently prevents patients paying
privately for treatment. Those seeking to pay are typically denied any free NHS
care and critics fear allowing top-ups would introduce a two-tier service.
Yet top-ups offer a solution to cases where the National Institute for
Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) judges drugs not to be cost-effective,
even though they may extend life.
The issue has come to a head in cancer, where modern targeted drugs offer
improved outcomes over older chemotherapy -- but at a cost of thousands of
pounds a year.
The reluctance of the NHS to endorse many of these products has led to
high-profile cases of terminally ill patients being denied free care after
buying their drugs privately.
People familiar with the Richards' review said he was likely to back some
provision for top-ups while at the same time trying to make them the exception
by recommending new mechanisms to bring down the cost of pioneering new drugs.
Drugmakers are watching warily.
Some companies, like Johnson & Johnson and Novartis , have
already negotiated "risk-sharing" deals to cap the cost of their drugs to the
NHS. But industry is cautious of making promises that could undermine prices in
other markets.
Richard Barker, director general of the Association of the British
Pharmaceutical Industry, said he would rather NICE looked again at a
cost-effectiveness formula that has not changed in 10 years.
On the rare occasions where patients choose to co-pay for treatment,
drugmakers argue they should be allowed to do so. But companies worry that a
broad green light for top-ups could ratchet down medical care at a time of
tightening state budgets.
"The last thing that the pharmaceutical industry wants is for patients to
have to pay for these drugs themselves," Barker said. "There is no commercial
enthusiasm for this."
New drugs have made cancer the fastest-growing section of the
pharmaceuticals market, with global oncology sales predicted by IMS Health to
increase at an average annual rate of 12 percent to 15 percent over the next
five years, or double the overall market.
Britain -- home to drug giants like GlaxoSmithKline and AstraZeneca --
accounts for 3 percent to 4 percent of the world drugs market.
(Editing by Sharon Lindores) Keywords: BRITAIN CANCER/
tf.TFN-Europe_newsdesk@thomson.com
ak
COPYRIGHT
Copyright Thomson Financial News Limited 2008. All rights reserved.
The copying, republication or redistribution of Thomson Financial News Content,
including by framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior
written consent of Thomson Financial News.
|