The Velcade Three
Article: Campaign Update
We have attended two important meetings over the past month. One was in Manchester with Sir Mike Rawlings (Chair of NICE) on January 23rd and the other was on 26/02/08 in London with Prof Mike Richards (National Cancer Director).
We felt we needed these meetings to clarify outstanding issues. One of our major concerns is the implications of the change of the wording in the documentation of NICE guidance in relation to Velcade being prescribed on the NHS.
The change to “at first relapse” means that potentially there are patients who will fall between two stools and not get access to Velcade. We wanted to know what would be done for patients past first relapse. The word change has led to patients only being able to access Velcade AT first relapse and not beyond, unless they and their consultant go down the road of applying to the PCT for the drug under Exceptional Circumstances.
Neither Mike Richards nor Mike Rawlings could explain the changes in the wording, but accepted that there were word changes, which is a step forward from Andrew Dillon, who never accepted that there was a word change. We are still waiting on the minutes from the meeting with Mike Rawlings with NICE, which was nearly six weeks ago!
One very positive outcome of the meeting with the National Cancer Director, Mike Richards was a request from him to be kept informed. He wants us to let him know if we become aware of any incidence of patients experiencing problems accessing Velcade in a clinical setting at any stage in their disease.
This is a really positive move forward and we will pass on any patient stories that we come across. So please let us know if you or anyone you know is having problems getting access to Velcade, regardless of where they are with their disease progression. We need this information to continue fighting to achieve our aim - that all patients should be allowed to have access to Velcade when their clinician says they need it.
Copyright © The Velcade Three, 2010.