Prostate cancer is the most common form of cancer among Scottish men,
affecting 19,000 and causing 800 deaths a year. Cancer charities yesterday
welcomed the decision.
Dr Harpel Kumar, chief executive of Cancer Research UK, which helped develop
the drug, said: ?We know abiraterone is an effective drug. Although it?s not
a cure, it can offer men crucial extra months at the end of their lives,
which can feel priceless to them and their loved ones.
?But it has taken the SMC far too long to come to the right decision and we
would urge them to consider a more efficient way of fast tracking
resubmissions.?
Owen Sharp, chief executive of Prostate Cancer UK, described the decision as a
?victory for common sense? and urged health boards to start prescribing the
drug as soon as possible.
The drug costs ?2,735 for a 28-day course and ?35,551 for a year, but the SMC
this time decided that the price was worth the resultant improvement in
patients? life expectancy and quality of life.
It also found there was evidence it could be targeted at a ?subgroup? of
patients that would benefit, rather than being prescribed to all those
suffering from prostate cancer.
The equivalent watchdog approved the abiraterone for use in the English and
Welsh NHS in May and the relevant body followed suit in Northern Ireland
last month.
The most high ? profile recipient was Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al ? Megrahi, the
Lockerbie bomber, who was freed by SNP ministers on compassionate grounds in
August 2009.
He supposedly had a life expectancy of less than three months but ended up
living another two years and nine months before eventually dying in the
Libyan capital Tripoli in May this year.
Jackson Carlaw, Scottish Tory health spokesman, said the drug should have been
available in Scotland ?long before now?.
?It has been an injustice that Scottish men have been the only ones in the UK
not to have had access to this,? he added.
Article source: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/scotland/9474546/Scottish-prostate-cancer-sufferers-finally-get-Lockerbie-bomber-drug.html
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