In the US companies will happily exploit dying people to extract as much money from them, and their families, as possible.
In the UK we recognise that dying people are vulnerable to this form of harm and we put protections in place.
The cancer drugs fund was a way to allow the NHS to use newer cancer drugs by reducing the amount of testing needed, and by increasing the amount of money we were will to pay for these meds.
After several years we realised that these drugs, while being very expensive, provided no meaningful benefit and often caused harm. Sometimes they degraded quality of life and shortened length of life.
In the US companies will happily exploit dying people to extract as much money from them, and their families, as possible.
In the UK we recognise that dying people are vulnerable to this form of harm and we put protections in place.
The cancer drugs fund was a way to allow the NHS to use newer cancer drugs by reducing the amount of testing needed, and by increasing the amount of money we were will to pay for these meds.
After several years we realised that these drugs, while being very expensive, provided no meaningful benefit and often caused harm. Sometimes they degraded quality of life and shortened length of life.
https://www.bmj.com/content/357/bmj.j2097