The Price Of Cancer

Charities are calling on drug companies and the UK Government to lower the cost of cancer drugs.

The life-extending breast cancer drug, Perjeta, was rejected for use on the NHS yesterday on cost grounds. It has a price tag of £105, 000 per person.

Perjeta (also known as pertuzumab) works together with the breast cancer drug Herceptin, and stops the growth of a patient's tumour for significantly longer than Herceptin on its own. For most women, it has very few significant additional side effects, giving patients more precious quality time with their families.
 
Despite clinical trials showing that the drug offers on average an extremely impressive 16 month extension of life to women with terminal HER2-positive secondary breast cancer, this is the second time Perjeta has been rejected by the SMC.  
 
James Jopling, Breakthrough Breast Cancer’s Director for Scotland, said:
 
"Women with breast cancer will still be reeling following the rejection of Kadcyla a few weeks ago, and now they have been hit with this devastating news. This is simply not acceptable. Women with secondary breast cancer urgently need these drugs; knowing they are available, and then being denied access to them is simply cruel.
 
"The pressure is well and truly on the pharmaceutical industry and the UK Government, which has responsibility for drug pricing, to find a more effective system for agreeing a price on medicines like Perjeta, so they can be made available to patients as quickly as possible.

"Access to drugs for people who really need them is an ongoing problem and Breakthrough is leading the call for a solution to be found. Thousands have joined our campaign for a fair price. We are determined to stop breast cancer for good, and making sure every woman receives the treatment she needs is the first step.
 
"It's impossible to put a price on life's precious moments but it's not impossible to put a fair price on life-extending drugs"