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Cancer: Immunotherapy

Question for Department of Health and Social Care

UIN 102688, tabled on 13 October 2020

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if his Department will expand funding for immunotherapy for advanced cancer in cases where clinical trials have shown that patients have responded well to that treatment.

Answered on

5 November 2020

NHS England funds licensed medicines that have been recommended by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE), or off-label use of licensed medicines that have been approved by the NHS England clinical policy process.

The Cancer Drug Fund allows early access to drugs with residual clinical uncertainties which can be addressed following further data collection.

Companies should go to NICE for licensed indications with any new data – and as long as drugs are priced appropriately, they will be made available for patients via the National Health Service. For drugs which will not be licensed, clinicians should apply to NHS England for a clinical policy and a commissioning position based on the strength of clinical evidence for use.