Olaparib not being funded by the NHS

Behind the headlines
 

Posted by Simon Newman, Head of Research on Tuesday 26 May 2015

 

As a scientist I have suffered the disappointment of seeing potential drugs I have worked on failing to make it into use. However, my frustrations as a scientist are nothing compared to the disappointment felt by women with ovarian cancer when drugs such as olaparib fail to get approved.
Olaparib is a treatment for women with relapsed platinum sensitive ovarian cancer with a BRCA gene mutation (around 400 women a year in England). It had been submitted for funding to the Cancer Drugs Fund, which announced on Friday that it won’t be funded by NHS England.....