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Thousands of life-extending drugs could be denied to patients under new guidelines which do not always class terminal cancer as 'severe', drugs bosses have warned Read more: Scientists uncover missing link between junk food and cancer By Kate Pickles Health Editor Published: 01:43, 9 May 2024 | Updated: 01:43, 9 May 2024 e-mail View comments Thousands of life-extending drugs could be denied to patients under new guidelines which do not always class terminal cancer as 'severe', drugs bosses have warned. A recent decision by watchdog the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (Nice) to block breast cancer wonder drug Enhertu is just the 'tip of the iceberg'. Leading pharmaceutical companies say around 2,000 new cancer drugs are in the pipeline, but warned changes to how they are assessed by regulators mean many are set to be rejected for use on the NHS .
Haran Maheson, of manufacturer Daiichi Sankyo UK, which developed Enhertu, said: 'In many ways, trastuzumab deruxtecan - or Enhertu - is just the tip of the iceberg. 'This goes way beyond one company's individual pipeline for one particular product. It's an industry-wide issue.
' Thousands of life-extending drugs could be denied to patients under new guidelines, drugs bosses have warned (stock image) Breast cancer wonder drug Enhertu is given as an intravenous (IV) infusion (stock image) Nice introduced new guidelines to determine the cost-effectiveness of medicines for use on the NHS following a review in 2021. READ .
