Cancer Patients in England Denied Access to Drugs Over Price Standoff
The medicines pricing regulator, pharmaceutical companies and government are locked in a row over access to life-extending therapies.
The drug pricing regulator has faced criticism for rejecting life-saving medicines as it weighs up costs for the National Health Service.
Photographer: Aaron Chown/PA Images/Getty Images
Jon Missin considers himself lucky. The 51-year-old from Northamptonshire, in central England, was diagnosed with incurable cancer in 2015. After he stopped responding to several different therapies aimed at prolonging his life, doctors advised him to try a drug from Sanofi, saying it could give him 11 or 12 months of remission. Only now, three years later, is the myeloma returning.
The extra time allowed Missin to celebrate milestones in his son’s life that he would have otherwise missed — birthdays, the start of primary school and then secondary school. “Without a doubt I wouldn’t be here today,” he said. “My consultant every month has been flabbergasted.”