Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the Answer of 30 October 2025 to Question 83371 on Abiraterone: Finance, what steps he is taking to secure recurrent budget allocation for abiraterone for use in cases of high-risk non-metastatic prostate cancer.

Abiraterone is not licensed for use in the treatment of high-risk, non-metastatic hormone-sensitive prostate cancer, and as such, cannot be evaluated by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) for routine use on the National Health Service. NICE makes recommendations for the NHS in England on the vast majority of new and significant licence indications but does not evaluate medicines that are used outside their marketing authorisations or “off-label”.

These funding decisions are the responsibility of NHS commissioners who are required to make decisions on the basis of the available evidence. For cancer medicines, NHS England is the responsible commissioner and has an established mechanism to do so through its clinical prioritisation process. NHS England considered abiraterone as an off-label treatment for the treatment of hormone sensitive, non-metastatic prostate cancer through its clinical policy development process in 2024/25. Through this process, NHS England confirmed that there was sufficient supporting evidence to support the routine commissioning of abiraterone in this indication and it was ranked as the top priority for routine commissioning. However, it has not been possible to identify the necessary recurrent funding to support the commissioning of abiraterone, or any other treatments within the prioritisation round.

This position takes into account the need to ensure the affordability of introducing any new routine commissioning policies, alongside maintaining existing services for patients, and meeting the NHS’ legal requirement to fund all NICE approved drugs. Abiraterone for the treatment of high-risk, hormone sensitive, non-metastatic prostate cancer remains the top priority for routine commissioning, and its position is being kept under active review.