Fight For Life Announcement 31-Jan-08
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Sutent Blister Packs
The Fight for Life Campaign KIDNEY CANCER SUPPORT GROUP
[email protected] 31st January 2008.
Hi Everyone,
I recently wrote to Pfizer querying why Sutent is supplied in a pack size of 30 capsules when the prescribed dose is a cycle of 4 weeks on and 2 weeks off i.e. 4 weeks equals 28 days which means only 28 capsules are necessary.
The current pack size of Sutent is 30 so each month there are 2 capsules that are surplus to requirements. The cost per capsule is currently £112.00 so if each pack only contained 28 capsules it would bring down the pack size and bring down the cost per pack to £3,139.00 instead of the current £3,363.00.
I asked Pfizer if they would they consider supplying Sutent in a new size pack containing only the 28 capsules needed per cycle.
Pfizer’s staff have also raised exactly the same question and Pfizer have now confirmed that …………………………….
“……… later this year we will start manufacturing Sutent as a blister pack of 28 capsules. The price of the pack will reduce in line with this smaller pack size (from £3363 to £3139).”
This change will happen later this year in June or July 2008 , and Pfizer will let me know exactly when we can expect the 28 capsule size blister packs to start coming through, and of course I will let you all know via the various forums as soon as I hear from them.
This will be a real saving for those patients subsidising their own Sutent treatment, but I’m afraid that Pfizer have confirmed that it will not affect the current cost effectiveness equations because the Q A L Y figures used, for example by the SMC and N I C E, calculate the price per dose and not by the pack size. But it will effect the buy-in price for the Pharmacies and Hospitals and it will also impact on the estimated costs that we quote in the appeal documents that we send out in support of funding applications; ie the cost to PCT’s will be £3,139 not £3,363 so we are asking them for less money for our trial period.
Anyone doing funding applications or an appeal against funding refusals should allow for this and quote the new figures of £3,139 for a 3 month or 2 cycle trial period ( bearing in mind the first cycle is free - prices effective mid year).
It also means that we can quote the price per cycle when we are talking to the media or TV or to MP’s and Councillors ; the new figure will be £25k ( £25,112 ) per year actual medicines cost.
Please drop me a line if you have any queries about this.
Very best regards to all,
Rose Woodward .
Please sign my e-petition for NHS approval of Kidney Cancer drugs; click this link to show solidarity with kidney cancer patients: http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/kidneycancerRCC/ Please forward this e petition link to everyone in your email address book and ask them to do the same, please post these details on any forum or online community you belong to. We need all the help we can get.
Sutent routinely Funded across the Merseyside and Cheshire Cancer Network
The Fight for Life Campaign KIDNEY CANCER SUPPORT GROUP [email protected]
31st January 2008.
Hi Everyone,
More good news………………. We have now got confirmation that the Merseyside and Cheshire Cancer Network which covers part of the North West Strategic Health Authority have agreed to fund Sutent (sunitinib)) as first line treatment via the commissioning arrangements in place at Clatterbridge.
This is exactly the same situation that happened in the North East Networks but eventually they extended the agreement to cover all mRCC patients whether they were first or second line, we hope common sense will prevail with this Cancer Network and SHA and they will do the same.
Obviously we are still trying to exert pressure to have this agreement extended to all patients including those who have been failed by Interferon and are now looking to Sutent as second line treatment. I will let you know as soon as we get any further news on this.
This is a complete list of the 7 new PCT’s who will now be funding Sutent as the routine 1st line treatment for all mRCC patients.
The Network serves 2.4 million of the population of the NHS North West SHA (the former Cheshire and Merseyside Strategic Health Authority).
We believe that other Cancer Networks across the whole of the North West will be announcing changes to their funding arrangements soon ( new financial year) and this will obviously make things easier for any patients in those areas. If you are putting in any applications for funding in this area, can I suggest that you talk this through with your Consultant what the best way forward is – obviously with the first cycle free offer, it will not be long to wait until the funded treatment can just fall in behind the first free cycle without the need to go through the awful funding process.
We are beginning to see a definite North South divide opening up??
As ever kind regards,
Rose Woodward
SUTENT APPROVED THROUGHOUT THE NORTH EAST 28-Aug-07
Hi Everyone,
This is the giant step forward we have been waiting and fighting for........
Please see below for a Press Release on behalf of North East Primary Care Trusts covering the North East Strategic Health Authority area.
It has been a long, hard and at times bitter battle, but we stayed the course; the following PCT's will now be funding Sutent as an approved drug and without the necessity for patients to prove exceptional circumstances for both 1st or 2nd line treatment for mRCC.
North East SHA
County Durham, Darlington, Gateshead, Hartlepool, Middlesbrough, Newcastle, Northumberland Care Trust, North Tyneside, Redcar and Cleveland, South Tyneside, North Tees, Sunderland Teaching.
Our small grass-roots patient-led group have provided support for 9 Kidney Cancer patients in this area through their funding appeals and we instigated the judicial review of a Northumberland PCT decision. It is due in no small part to the tenacity of those patients with the support from leading Clinicians & Barry Nelson of the Northern Echo that this turn-around has been achieved.
I hope this will be the beginning of a domino effect. We shall be including the Press Release with all evidence packs and letters that we send out on behalf of kidney cancer patients applying for funding in other SHA areas.
Any patients in the process of submitting applications and or appeals should print this out and include it with their documentation and letters. It will be very difficult for other PCT's around the Country to argue that the drugs are not cost effective or to dispute their efficacy now they have been approved across the entire North East SHA.
I just wanted everyone to be able to get this news quickly and to say thanks to everyone involved for their support and encouragement in what was at times a nightmare struggle.
A special mention is due to the families of patients John Hodgson and Colin Crispin from this area who played a really important part in the battle but sadly passed away without knowing that their fight to get this drug approved would be successful. Bless you both.
Kind Regards,
Rose Woodward. [email protected]
28th August 2007
Dear colleague
Please see below an announcement on behalf of North East Primary Care Trusts regarding funding for sunitinib renal cancer drug.
Decision made over funding for kidney cancer drug
Primary care organisations across the North East have agreed to broaden the use of Sunitinib to make it available for those patients with kidney cancer who have already received initial treatment for their illness.
This means that a small number of patients who have already received interferon to treat kidney cancer, may now be able to receive Sunitinib.
The decision follows discussions with local renal cancer clinicians who have provided further information on patients who have been treated with interferon for their kidney cancer because at the time of diagnosis Sunitinib was not available as an NHS approved drug.
The primary care trusts have agreed that the decision about whether or not this group of patients should now receive Sunitinib should be made by their consultant, on clinical grounds, following discussions with the individual patients.
In July the North East and Cumbria Cancer Drug Approvals Group, which includes doctors and other professionals involved in the care of patients with cancer, agreed that Sunitinib should be used, pending guidance from the National Institute of Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE), as an initial treatment for patients with kidney cancer.
Caroline Latta Head of Communications North of Tyne NHS __________________ Rose Woodward - Cornwall
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