The existence of the Cancer Drug Fund (CDF) is a source of major controversies, as some say it is neither ethical nor economical to continue its funding via NHS. Despite the 2016 reform, which reshaped for it to provide more ‘value for money for the taxpayers’ (NHS England, 2016), the question whether the fund should be financially supported by the NHS still arises.
The existence of the CDF creates an ethical problem, as it undermines one of the pillars of medical ethics — justice. NHS, as many other finite budget healthcare system worldwide, aims at maximising resource allocation efficiency, so that the most benefits could be enjoyed by the society. However, the CDF generates an exception for cancer patients to have reimbursement for drugs, during the process of NICE assessment — prior to appraisal. Moreover, a study conducted in 2017 concluded that ‘the CDF has not delivered …show more content…
The ‘new’ CDF works more closely with NICE, which could help with eliminating the financially unsustainable drugs, while still providing the ‘patients with faster access to the most promising new cancer treatments’ (NICE, 2016). What is more, reliable data collection is one of the new priorities of the CDF. By adopting a more evidence-based approach the fund could further facilitate reducing low cost-effectiveness, as well as provide valuable scientific data for research. Financial support for the CDF also indirectly supports R&D conducted privately by pharmaceutical corporations, providing scientific advancements, which are hard to measure quantitatively. Finally, reimbursement of cancer drugs in patients with advanced cancer, allow for additional testing, essential for introducing these drugs for adjuvant care in earlier stages of cancer, where they could prove to have more profound benefits. (Dhingra,
The existence of the CDF creates an ethical problem, as it undermines one of the pillars of medical ethics — justice. NHS, as many other finite budget healthcare system worldwide, aims at maximising resource allocation efficiency, so that the most benefits could be enjoyed by the society. However, the CDF generates an exception for cancer patients to have reimbursement for drugs, during the process of NICE assessment — prior to appraisal. Moreover, a study conducted in 2017 concluded that ‘the CDF has not delivered …show more content…
The ‘new’ CDF works more closely with NICE, which could help with eliminating the financially unsustainable drugs, while still providing the ‘patients with faster access to the most promising new cancer treatments’ (NICE, 2016). What is more, reliable data collection is one of the new priorities of the CDF. By adopting a more evidence-based approach the fund could further facilitate reducing low cost-effectiveness, as well as provide valuable scientific data for research. Financial support for the CDF also indirectly supports R&D conducted privately by pharmaceutical corporations, providing scientific advancements, which are hard to measure quantitatively. Finally, reimbursement of cancer drugs in patients with advanced cancer, allow for additional testing, essential for introducing these drugs for adjuvant care in earlier stages of cancer, where they could prove to have more profound benefits. (Dhingra,