A new experimental drug that is currently unlicensed but used to treat skin cancer has been fast-tracked under a new National Health Service scheme in the UK to get to patients quicker than previously. Pembrolizumab is a treatment for advanced cases of skin cancer and is the first drug to be approved under the new Early Access to Medicine scheme (EAMS) that was launched last April.
The idea behind the scheme is that seriously ill patients will get access to pioneering drugs that may make a major difference to them much quickly than had previously been the case. But drugs signs off for EAMS will still have been through serious scrutiny by regulators, assessing the risks and benefits before patients receive it.
Green light
If a green light is received from the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) then doctors anywhere in the UK are then able to prescribe that drug, while the normal licensing procedures continue in the background. These procedures can take years and normally the drug would be unavailable to patients during this time.
Melanoma, or skin cancer, is the 6th most common type of cancer in the UK and kills more than 2,000 people each year. The damage to the skin from the harmful UV rays of the sun increases a person’s risk of getting this particularly type of cancer.
Advanced melanoma can then spread to other parts of the body and may not be treatable once this happens. However, targeted treatment can ease the symptoms of the condition and even extend life in some cases. It is these advanced cases that the new drug has shown promise in treating during clinical trials.
Fighting back
The treatment is part of what is considered the next generation of drugs to be used in cancer care that work to stimulate the body’s immune system into fighting the disease. It also blocks the biological pathways that the disease uses to hide itself from attacks by the immune system.
Clinical trials continue, though the drug has already received a license in the US to treat advanced melanoma patients. Previously, UK patients would only get the drug if they had been part of the clinical trials.
Another government scheme currently working in England, called The Cancer Drugs Fund, pays for the drugs that have already been licensed but are not yet approved for use on the NHS by the health watchdog NICE.
Emma Greenwood, of Cancer Research UK, said that the drug was another example of the great progress being made in developing drugs to treat cancer and also to get them to the people that need them quicker than had been the case before. It also means that the data can be collected on the drug’s effectiveness far quicker and patients are correctly monitored while trying the treatments.
