Is access to new medicines improving in Scotland?
The Scottish Medicines Consortium has approved three cancer drugs for routine use in the NHS in Scotland. All three were considered through the patients and clinician engagement (PACE) process for drugs for very rare or end-of-life conditions.
Lutetium oxotretide (Lutathera) was approved for treating a rare tumour type that appears in the pancreas or gut; tivozanib (Fotivda) was accepted for the treatment of advanced renal cancer; and atezolizumab (Tecentriq) was accepted for the treatment of advanced non-small cell lung cancer.
The committee did not accept ocrelizumab (Ocrevus) for the treatment of relapsing forms of multiple sclerosis, saying that the evidence on cost-effectiveness compared to other treatments was not compelling enough.