On March 16, 2016, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) approved some major changes to the UK’s Cancer Drugs Fund (CDF). The most significant of these changes is that NICE will now be evaluating all oncology drugs approved by the European Medicines Agency (EMA), including those previously funded through the CDF. Prior to this change, the CDF had independently conducted its own reviews. Now, the CDF will only serve as a funding source to be used at NICE’s discretion. This reorganization was precipitated by years of budget difficulties and numerous disagreements about the respective roles of NICE and the CDF.
NICE has started to release oncology reviews under its revised technology appraisal process, with many additional reviews in development and expected to be released in the next few months. In this post, we will discuss those reviews and what they may indicate about the future of oncology drug funding in the UK.