Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what plans he has to improve access to Padcev for (a) patients who have undergone chemotherapy and (b) all patients.

The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) makes recommendations for the National Health Service in England on whether new licensed medicines should be routinely funded for eligible patients based on an assessment of the evidence of clinical and cost effectiveness.

NICE issued guidance that recommends enfortumab vedotin (Padcev) with pembrolizumab (Keytruda), within its marketing authorisation, as an option for untreated unresectable or metastatic urothelial cancer in adults when platinum-based chemotherapy is suitable. It is now available for NHS patients in line with NICE’s recommendations. The guidance is available at the following link:

https://www.nice.org.uk/guidance/ta1097/chapter/1-Recommendation

NICE was unable to make recommendations on the use of Padcev in the treatment of people who have previously undergone chemotherapy as the manufacturing company, Astellas, did not provide an evidence submission. Astellas has confirmed that there is unlikely to be enough evidence that the technology is a cost-effective use of NHS resources in this population. NICE will review the position if the company decides that it wants to make an evidence submission.