This is fantastic news for women using breast cancer medication.
Before Westminster, I worked as an oncology pharmacist.
Telling a woman a treatment existed but wasn’t available to her was one of the hardest parts of the job.
It was also one reason I went into politics.
NICE never said Enhertu didn’t work.
Women lived longer, and longer without their cancer progressing.
The problem was cost-effectiveness: even after NICE adjusted for disease severity, its estimates were above its usual range.
Cancer drugs are especially difficult.
Treatments can move incredibly quickly. The long-term survival data NICE needs can take years to mature.
You can have a promising drug, patients who need it now, and still not know its full long-term value.
That is one reason we have the £340m Cancer Drugs Fund.
Since 2016, it has let promising cancer medicines be used through “managed access” while more evidence is collected.
Enhertu itself has used this route for another HER2-positive indication.
And Trump is part of this story.
His “Most-Favored-Nation” policy is America First applied to medicines: lower prices for Americans while using US trade policy to push pharmaceutical revenues up abroad.
The White House says this explicitly.
Britain is now one of the countries being asked to pay more.
Under the UK-US deal, the NHS will pay 25% more, on average, for prospective new medicines.
That is a zero-sum policy: America gets lower prices while one of its closest allies pays more.
Enhertu is a real win. Thank you to the women who fought for access, and campaigners including Breast Cancer Now, METUP UK and Make 2nds Count.
If Britain spends more on medicines, UK patients should see the return in faster access, more treatments and better outcomes.
