Private medical cover to increase following Nice decision on Avastin?

The NHS regulator the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) has confirmed it is not approving funding for cancer drug Avastin, something that could lead to more people taking out private medical cover.

Avastin has been shown to slow the spread of bowel cancer in advanced stages and research shows the drug can give an extra six weeks of life to patients.

However, Nice, which uses a cost versus benefits ratio to determine which treatments should be available on the NHS, believes the drug is too expensive at a cost £21,000 per patient.

Nice had earlier said it would not be funding the drug in a preliminary decision earlier this year but has now confirmed it in a final policy draft.

Mark Flannagan, chief executive of Beating Bowel Cancer, criticised the decision, telling the BBC : "We believe that all treatment options should be ruled in, regardless of cost, giving doctors and their patients the freedom to choose the treatments that are right for them."

More than 38,600 people are diagnosed with bowel cancer in the UK every year. However, if diagnosed at the earliest stage, bowel cancer is highly treatable, with a survival rate of more than 90 per cent over five years.

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