Petition: The Future of the Cancer Drugs Fund and NICE reform

As part of the ‘Access to Cancer Medicines Charity Coalition’, Kidney Cancer UK urgently need your help to stop plans that would delay vital new drugs and treatments getting to patients by signing this petition. A final decision is expected in two weeks so please do it today and make sure your voice heard!
NHS England and The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) have put forward proposals which threaten to have a devastating impact on access to vital new health treatments for millions of people. There is a real risk that some patients may die while life extending treatments are kept just out of reach. Kidney Cancer UK urgently need you to to sign this petition calling on NHS England to reconsider.
NHS England and NICE are proposing that if any new treatment is approved for use on the NHS in England, but will cost more than a set amount per year overall, then access can be restricted and delayed with no limits on how long this can last. If this was set at £20 million as in their draft proposal this would mean that around 1 in 5 new treatments will potentially be delayed. This undermines what our health service is supposed to be all about.
You can sign the petition here:
This is the open letter to The Prime minister you can read the full article here:
Dear Prime Minister,
Re: The Future of the Cancer Drugs Fund and NICE reform
As a coalition of 15 cancer charities, we know of your personal commitment to the Cancer Drugs Fund (CDF), which has benefited 84,000 families since 2010. But, having seen plans for its long-awaited successor, we are deeply concerned by the lack of reform proposed to the wider NICE process of appraising cancer medicines.
Unfortunately the new system does not update the methodology used by NICE, introduced back in 1999, and many clinically-effective treatments will now struggle to gain approval. We must not forget the CDF was established as an emergency measure to bypass the very NICE appraisal process to which it is now returning because it was not working for cancer patients.
At this late stage, we urge you to intervene and commit to a review of the outdated mechanisms used to assess cancer medicines. We need a sustainable system, flexible enough to ensure that the best cancer drugs can routinely benefit NHS patients. As the Prime Minister who introduced the CDF, we believe that you want these things as well – please do not allow the assessment of cancer drugs to be consigned to a last-century methodology.
Yours sincerely,
Mark Flannagan, Chief Executive at Beating Bowel Cancer
Cathy Gilman, Chief Executive at Bloodwise
Deborah Alsina, Chief Executive at Bowel Cancer UK
Baroness Delyth Morgan, Chief Executive at Breast Cancer Now
Jane Lyons, Chief Executive at Cancer52
Kate Lee, Chief Executive at CLIC Sargent
Monica Izmajlowicz, Chief Executive at Leukaemia Care
Louise Bayne, Chief Executive at Ovacome
Alex Ford, Chief Executive at Pancreatic Cancer UK
Karen Stalbow, Head of Policy, Knowledge and Impact at Prostate Cancer UK
Dr Jesme Fox, Medical Director at Roy Castle Lung Cancer Foundation
Lindsey Bennister, Chief Executive at Sarcoma UK
Rowena Bartlett, Chief Executive at Tackle Prostate Cancer
Annwen Jones, Chief Executive at Target Ovarian Cancer
Sarah Lindsell, Chief Executive at The Brain Tumour Charity