Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they will intervene and ask the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence to work with the pharmaceutical company, Roche, to reassess its provisional decision not to recommend the advanced breast cancer drug Kadcyla for routine use on the NHS.

The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) is the independent body that provides guidance on the prevention and treatment of ill health and the promotion of good health and social care. NICE operates with great transparency and makes exhaustive efforts to involve stakeholders, including manufacturers, in its appraisal work.

NICE is currently appraising trastuzumab emtansine (Kadcyla) for the treatment of HER2-positive unresectable locally advanced or metastatic breast cancer after treatment with trastuzumab and a taxane. NICE’s final guidance to the National Health Service on whether the drug should continue to be routinely available on the NHS is expected in March 2017.

It would not be appropriate for Ministers or officials to intervene in this independent process.