Asda is to sell cancer drugs on a not-for-profit basis, as thousands of NHS patients continue to be denied medicines that are deemed too expensive.
The supermarket giant called on other pharmacists to follow its lead and lower the price of all cancer drugs that are prescribed privately, to give patients access to drugs that are not always available on the NHS.
The move could save cancer patients thousands of pounds on the cost of treatments that may extend their lives by weeks, months or years, but which have been judged to be too expensive to be routinely available for free from the health service.
The move comes as the Government restated a pledge to make more expensive treatments available to NHS patients from April next year, with a £200 million fund to pay for cancer drugs.
Charities say that as many as 16,000 patients have been denied drugs which could extend their lives, even for a short time, because the treatments have not been judged to be cost-effective by the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE).
A row over “top-up” treatment last year resulted in guidance that no patient should be penalised or deprived of NHS care if they choose to pay privately for drugs, including treatments for cancer of the kidney, liver and lungs.
The lung cancer drug Iressa will be sold by Asda for £2,167.71 for a pack of 30. The supermarket said this was significantly cheaper than the £2,601.25 charged at Lloyds Pharmacy, the £3,251.57 at Boots and £3,253.56 at Superdrug.
Asda said it had checked the price of seven of the most commonly privately prescribed cancer drugs in British pharmacies and had found mark-ups of up to 76 per cent.
It claimed that Superdrug charged the most for four of the seven drugs, and marked up all seven by 50 per cent over cost price.
Prices at Lloyds and Tesco were marked up by 20 per cent, while at Boots all seven drugs were marked up by either 50 per cent or 27.5 per cent, Asda said.
The supermarket chain, which is owned by Wal-Mart, the world’s largest retail company, will also sell the leukaemia drug Glivec for £1,604.08, cheaper than Sainsbury’s, Lloyds, Tesco, Superdrug and Boots.
Nexavar, a treatment for kidney and liver cancer, will be sold for £2,980.47 and Sutent, for kidney and stomach tumours, will be sold for £3,138.80.
Tarceva, for pancreatic and lung cancer, will be priced at £1,631.53.
John Evans, superintendent pharmacist at Asda, said: “The crippling cost of paying privately for cancer treatment has forced many people to spend their savings or even re-mortgage their house to pay for these essential drugs.
“We are the first retailer to recognise this injustice and to do something about it, and we are calling on other retailers to follow our lead.
“It’s a small step in the right direction but our permanent not-for-profit price on cancer treatment drugs makes them more accessible and can save people hundreds if not thousands of pounds.”
Research by Asda shows that 63 per cent of people are unaware that private prescription prices vary between pharmacies.
About 76 per cent of people return to the same pharmacy to pick up their prescriptions and 92 per cent never compare prices.
The cancer drugs will go on sale on a not-for-profit basis from Monday.
Earlier this year, Asda began selling privately prescribed IVF drugs on a not-for-profit basis, saving couples up to £820 per IVF cycle compared with other high street pharmacies Andrew Lansley, the new Health Secretary, said that his priority was to give everyone, including cancer patients, better access to drugs and innovative treatments on the NHS.
“We will do this by reforming the way drug companies are paid for NHS medicines,” he said.
“As an interim measure, we are creating a new Cancer Drug Fund, which will operate from April 2011. This fund will help patients get the drugs their doctors recommend”.
Mike Hobday, head of campaigns and policy at the charity Macmillan Cancer Support, said: “[This is] good news for people who can afford to buy cancer drugs privately but for the majority of cancer patients this simply isn’t an option.
“We believe clinically effective drugs must be available to everyone on the NHS and not just to those who can afford to pay privately.
“The £200million cancer drugs fund, included in [today’s] coalition agreement, may go some way to ensuring fairer access to cancer treatments but wider reform is also needed to enable all patients to get the drugs their doctor recommends.”
Thursday, May 20, 2010
Asda to sell cancer drugs at cost price - Times Online
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1 comment:
It's a good news for those who needs those drugs. I salute to Asda for making the first move. Hoping that other pharmacist will follow. We know that not everyone indeed can afford the prices of those drugs. I'm hoping that other pharmacist will also be motivated to lower the prices of their cancer drugs.
"Two wrongs don't make a right, but three lefts do."
~Jason Love
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