'Milestone' skin cancer drugs available on NHS (UK)

Two ‘milestone’ drugs that extend the lives of people with advanced skin cancer are to be made available on the NHS, after the makers dropped their prices.

The two drugs will now be offered on the NHS in England and Wales, offering hope to advanced skin cancer patients. Photo: ALAMY

Ipilimumab and vemurafenib had been rejected as too expensive by the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (Nice), which rations drugs, but both makers subsequently agreed to reduce their prices. They will now be available to patients throughout all of England and Wales. The two drugs have been described as the biggest step forward in treatment of advanced melanoma, which kills 2,200 a year in Britain, in 30 years. If left to spread, malignant melanoma is fatal. Most sufferers die within a year. However, some patients given ipilimumab - an immune-system booster given intravenously - were still alive after 4.5 years of treatment.

More usually gives sufferers extra months to live, raising the chance of surviving for a year with advanced melanoma from 25 to 46 per cent. Dr Paul Lorigan, senior lecturer in medical oncology at the Christie NHS Foundation Trust in Manchester, said Nice’s decision “marks a major milestone in the treatment of advanced melanoma”.

Vemurafenib, marketed as Zelboraf by maker Roche, works in the half of patients who have a particular gene mutation called BRAF V600, which can trigger advanced melanoma. The pill has been shown to increase survival on average from 9.6 to 13.2 months, and help patients feel much more energetic.

Professor Alan Ashworth, chief executive of The Institute of Cancer Research in London, which helped spearhead research into the drug, said: “It represents a great stride forward in the treatment of advanced malignant melanoma, and is a brilliant example of what new-generation targeted cancer therapies can achieve.” The drugs are not cheap. The final prices are confidential, but Nice said pre-negotiation prices were £52,500 for seven months on vemurafenib and £75,000 for a four-dose ‘induction’ course of ipilimumab. They also have side-effects: ipilimumab can cause diarrhoea, rash, itchy skin, fatigue, nausea, vomiting and abdominal pain; while vemurafenib can cause secondary skin cancers. However, these can usually be cut out without complications.

Professor Peter Johnson, chief clinician at Cancer Research UK, said their approval was "a good example of NICE and the pharmaceutical companies working together to ensure that effective cancer treatments get from research to the patients who need them". He added: "We want to see responsible pricing from the outset so that patients are not left in limbo.” Dr James Larkin, of the Royal Marsden Hospital in London, said “in principle” both drugs could be taken together and that a trial was underway examining that. However, he warned it was not necessarily the case that combining them would prolong life further, and doing so could have unexpected side effects.

Source: Telegraph UK 

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