Landmark deal will see NHS patients gain access to personalised therapy, reveals NHS England

NHS England has announced a landmark deal, giving children and young people access to Novartis’ Kymriah (a chimeric antigen receptor T-cell, CAR-T, therapy) — a personalised therapy for the treatment of cancer.

This commercial deal between NHS England and Novartis is the first of its kind in Europe and has been announced just 10 days after the therapy received marketing authorisation by the European Commission.

It will be used for children and young patients with a specific form of leukaemia and is hoped to represent the first wave of personalised treatments in the health services’ long-term plan to upgrade cancer services.

Simon Stevens will be officially announcing the deal during the first day (5 September) of the Health and Care Innovation Expo taking place in Manchester (3–4 pm on the Main stage). During this announcement Stevens will say: “CAR-T therapy is a true game changer, and NHS cancer patients are now going to be amongst the first in the world to benefit. Today’s approval is proof-positive that, in our 70th year, the NHS is leading from the front on innovative new treatments. This constructive fast-track negotiation also shows how responsible and flexible life sciences companies can succeed — in partnership with the NHS — to make revolutionary treatments available to patients.”

CAR-T therapies, although exciting options for the treatment and potential cure of some patients, are extremely complex and expensive to produce. As such, earlier this year (28 August) NICE published its recommendation against the use of Yescarta (made by Kite Pharma) in England for the treatment of aggressive subtypes of non-Hodgkin lymphoma.

At its full list price Kymriah costs around £282,000 per patient. It is licensed to treat patients up to 25 years old with B cell acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (ALL) that is refractory, in relapse post-transplant or in second or later relapse. The commercial terms of the deal between Novartis and NHS England have not been disclosed.

“CAR-T cell therapy is the most exciting advances in treatment for childhood leukaemia for decades,” commented Dr Alasdair Rankin, director of Research at the blood cancer charity Bloodwise. “Intensive chemotherapy can now cure the vast majority of children but a significant number still tragically die every year because they do not respond to treatment. CAR-T cell therapy offers the genuine chance of a long-term cure for children who otherwise would have no other hope.”

“It’s fantastic news for children and young people with this form of leukaemia that CAR-T cell therapy will be made available on the NHS, making them the first in Europe to have routine access to this exciting new type of immunotherapy,” added Professor Charles Swanton, Cancer Research UK’s chief clinician. “We applaud NHS England, NICE and the company for working together to make this immensely complex treatment available to patients quickly, through the Cancer Drugs Fund.”

The first three NHS hospitals to go through the international accreditation process for the provision of CAR-T therapy for children are in London, Manchester and Newcastle. Once these have passed accreditation requirements they can begin treating patients.