Trodelvy, an exciting new drug that could give certain women living with incurable secondary breast cancer the hope of more time, has been provisionally rejected for use on the NHS in England.
This decision will cause anxiety and uncertainty, on top of the already huge emotional toll of living with incurable secondary breast cancer. Patients are now faced with the prospect of not knowing whether they will be able to access this treatment on the NHS when they need it.
However, this decision can be reversed – but we urgently need your help if we’re going to do it and we don’t have much time.
Please add your name to our open letter, calling on pharmaceutical company Gilead, NICE and NHS England, to find a solution that will make Trodelvy available to the patients who need it. In particular, we need Gilead to price the drug fairly to ensure it can be recommended for use on the NHS.
We simply cannot be left in a situation where women, who already face devastatingly poorer prognoses and limited treatment options, are left with the prospect of being denied the chance of more time to live.
Please join our call and add your name to our open letter today. It’s Time for Trodelvy.
* Read our open letter to Gilead, NICE and NHS England in full here.
Dear Dr Véronique Walsh (General Manager & VP - UK & Ireland, Gilead), Amanda Pritchard (Chief Executive, NHS England) and Dr Samantha Roberts (Chief Executive, NICE),
We are writing urging you all to do everything you can and work together to find a solution to reverse this devastating provisional rejection of sacituzumab govitecan (Trodelvy) so this important new treatment can be made available for routine use on the NHS for eligible patients with incurable secondary triple negative breast cancer.
This group of patients already face devastatingly poor prognoses and limited treatment options which is why we need you to all put this group of patients first so that they are not left with the prospect of being denied the chance of more time to live as the drug isn’t cost-effective at its current price.
Patients have already faced a rollercoaster of emotions regarding access to Trodelvy. Initially there was hope when this drug was making its way through the MHRA regulatory process. This was almost immediately replaced by uncertainty, due to the failure of Gilead to agree an interim access scheme with NHS England and concerns about whether Gilead could guarantee their pre-reimbursement access scheme was sufficient and ensure access for all eligible patients.
It is now absolutely crushing that we are left in a situation where there is a risk that patients could miss out on the hope of more time with their loved ones, unless this provisional decision is reversed.
We can and must now find a way through this and we urge Gilead, NICE and NHS England to urgently work together to ensure Trodelvy can be recommended for routine use on the NHS. This includes Gilead doing everything possible to ensure the drug is priced at a level that ensures its routine availability on the NHS.
Finally, whilst we find ourselves in this uncertain situation, we urgently call on Gilead to guarantee that their pre-reimbursement access scheme will remain open and continue to accept all new eligible patients until a final positive decision is made by NICE.