Claire Rowney chief executive of Breast Cancer Now says:
“It’s deeply frustrating that a treatment combination which could give people seven more precious months of making memories with the people they love and doing what matters most, has been provisionally rejected for use on the NHS in England due to cost.
"People with incurable metastatic breast cancer are yet again being left in limbo with an effective treatment remaining just out of their reach. For them, time is so precious, and the uncertainty caused by delays to accessing treatment is devastating.
“We know it can be challenging for combination treatments to be approved because of the combined cost of all the medicines. But it’s unacceptable that anyone misses out on vital treatment, or precious extra time, because the system fails to recognise the value of innovative combination therapies like this.
“We need genuine collaboration across government, the NHS and the pharmaceutical industry to ensure everyone with breast cancer can access the newest, most effective drugs when they need them.
“This is not the final decision for inavolisib with palbociclib and fulvestrant. The opportunity must now be seized by Roche, NICE and NHS England, to come together urgently and find a solution that puts people living with this devastating disease first.”
ENDS
Notes to editors:
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Inavolisib with palbociclib and fulvestrant for treating recurrent hormone receptor-positive HER2-negative PIK3CA-positive advanced breast cancer after adjuvant endocrine treatment
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In clinical trials, this treatment combination was associated with overall survival of 34 months, compared with 27 months for people in the palbociclib and fulvestrant arm (an increase of 7 months). These results build on a series of discoveries that our funded scientists have been making at the Breast Cancer Now Toby Robins Research Centre at The Institute of Cancer Research, London.
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Enhertu, another life extending metastatic breast cancer drug was rejected for use on the NHS in England in 2024 after several rounds of discussions. Breast Cancer Now has launched a new petition calling on people to add their name to help urge Daiichi Sankyo and AstraZeneca, NHS England and NICE to reach a deal to make Enhertu available on the NHS, now.
Sign the Enhertu Now petition
Enhertu is a drug that could extend thousands of lives. But it was rejected for use on the NHS in 2024 for being too expensive.
Since then, thousands of people have missed out on the drug. And many have died. Robbed of the extra time they could have had.
We now have a chance to stop anyone else missing out. But we must act now.
Sign our petition calling on the drug companies, NHS England and NICE to take this opportunity to make Enhertu available.