The Velcade Three
Article: So where have we been?
The picture to the right was taken on March 17th at the Myeloma UK info day in Leeds. The Velcade Three are seen here with Dr Gordon Cook - A Consultant Haematologist at Leeds.
On 8th February Jacky and Janice attended the NICE appeal, which was held in London. We left the appeal feeling positive, however the results will not be made public until March 2007.
The appeal process took a surprising turn with the drug company feeling so confident about the clinical effectiveness of their drug that they wanted to discuss with NICE, a new initiative. Their proposal was that they would foot the bill for any patient that did not respond to Velcade, if the drug was to be made available for myeloma sufferers on the NHS.
Cost effectiveness of Velcade dominated the day, however, no one in the room disputed the clinical effectiveness of Velcade
30th November - Attended Britain against Cancer Conference.
We had an opportunity to ask Secretary of State for Health Patricia Hewitt questions about access to Velcade - we asked her;
“Secretary of State, you have just stated very proudly and rightly so about - 'the extraordinary development of cancer treatments' - of which I believe velcade to be one of them. The drug velcade has been given a negative ruling by NICE, however, there are no alternative licensed treatments for MM.
“Is the Secretary of State advocating the use of unlicensed treatment in the place of velcade - and if not - can she please please, please advise myeloma patients which alternative treatments we can turn to, as our lives depend of this and I want to live.”
We continue with written correspondence, contacting MPs, PCTs and Patricia Hewitt.
Copyright © The Velcade Three, 2010.