|
Update
Hello everyone,
Just to let you know that the herceptin petition was presented to the Secretary of Health with 34,000 signatures on it. She told the group of about 50 women who attended the march that it still will not be possible for them to get it on the National Health Service until it is licensed for early breast cancer (about next May). Unfortunately, some officials are still worried because of the problems that arose with vioxx, even though arthritis is a less serious condition.
After herceptin gets licensed for early breast cancer, there is still the matter of making the local funding bodies pay for it, since some won't pay out unless forced to, which is a separate process. One good thing is that the government just announced today that it was going to speed up this process so that drugs that extend life expectancy will get priority, reducing the process for key drugs like herceptin by nine months. So, we are still looking at November 2006, but one cancer charity had estimated that herceptin would not be available on the NHS until 2008, so that is some progress.
|