Chair's statement on cancer drug fund study
28 April 2017
Comment from Public Accounts Committee Chair Meg Hillier MP on the critical study of the Cancer Drugs Fund published in Annals of Oncology and widely reported today.
- Annals of Oncology: Do patient access schemes for high-cost cancer drugs deliver value to society? (External link)
- Report: Cancer Drugs Fund
- Report: Cancer Drugs Fund (PDF 236KB)
- Inquiry: Cancer Drugs Fund
- Public Accounts Committee
Meg Hillier MP said:
"Last year our Committee raised serious concerns about the evaluation of drugs provided through the Cancer Drugs Fund.
We concluded that the Fund required significant and urgent reform if it was to be sustainable.
If patients seeking support through schemes such as this are to get the best possible treatment, there must be confidence that public money is being spent on the right medication, at a fair price.
As this new study further makes clear, the Fund did not represent meaningful value.
This must serve as a lesson to future governments seeking to commit public money to projects that, without effective management, are doomed to fail both patients and taxpayers in general."
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