Andrew Lansley this morning has announced that he will enable swifter access to new drugs. This will be welcome news for many. However there are three other vital ingredients for speedier access.
Firstly we need to make it compulsory for drugs companies to register all their trials. At the moment NICE only has access to limited information because trials that elicit negative findings only show up if they were disclosed in the first place. This remains a major loophole - published data is currently incomplete.
Secondly there should be parallel development of sensitivity data - more commonly known as personalised medicine. Advances in genetic testing are beginning to reveal why some people respond well to a drug and others not at all. If we can test who will be sensitive to a particular drug, then we will prevent false hope and wasted treatments for people who will not benefit.
And thirdly 2020health's report 'Our health, Our Money, Our Say' highlighted that there is already a huge amount of wasted money in the NHS that could already be being spent on new drugs; some of this money could be equally well spent on ensuring that speedier access is a reality - but also if we all pay a token fee of £1 per prescribed item, we will all take more care not to waste any medication that we are prescribed.
