25th August 2006

The Citizens' report "Heart problems with Herceptin" (15/08/06) should call us to question how 'miracle cures' get reported in the media. The facts tell a different story to the anecdotal success stories. No one can put a price on human life but it is worth reminding ourselves that, Herceptin has disadvantages as well as advantages.

The journal 'Lancet Oncology' concludes 18 patients have to be treated with Herceptin to prolong one life (i). In other words £400,000 to prolong a life by an average of four months. Meanwhile for the majority of women for whom it does not work, there is an increased risk of severe heart damage and spread of cancer to the central nervous system.

The Green party expressed concerns earlier this year to the National Institute for Clinical Excellence that pressures could lead to the drug being approved before proper assessment. Indeed Patricia Hewitts' decision to fast track this drug at a possible yearly cost to the NHS of £100 million, undermines the ability of local authorities to make decisions based on local needs (iii).  How many other lives could be saved or improved with this money?

Drug companies make vast profits and increasingly exert too much control. Greens want to see an independent body fix the price of drugs - but also in the light of evermore expensive drugs we need a debate about what we can expect from the NHS. Certainly ending Tory and Labour policies of increasing private sector involvement in the NHS is critical if we are to save our NHS from collapse.

Cllr Martin Whiteside
Stroud Green Party Parliamentary Spokesperson

Notes:

(i) Quoted in The Ecologist July/August 2006.

(ii) Glos Green party press release re Herceptin 22/02/06:
http://www.glosgreenparty.org.uk/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1066&Itemid=2

(iii) Healthcare thinktank the King's Fund noted in a policy briefing on Herceptin, that patricia Hewitt's intervention at ministerial level represented "a substantial deviation from the procedures set up to recommend therapies for use in the NHS".