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Cancer drugs
New national cancer drug fund in pipeline
However, finding the finance for that fund won’t be easy, the NCCP’s director warns.
A NEW NATIONAL budget for cancer drugs will be set up before the end of this year, according to a report in the Irish Medical News today.
The new fund has identified 11 drugs – which make up around 80 per cent of current expenditure on oncology medication – which will be funded through the demand-led scheme.
The move will see control for expensive adjuvant cancer therapies removed from hospitals.
National Cancer Control Programme (NCCP) director Dr Susan O’Reilly said that negotiations on how the fund will operate are still going on between the NCCP, the HSE and the Primary Care Reimbursement Service. She also said that financing the drugs scheme would prove difficult “because there is no new money”.
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