Cash for cancer drugs not overseas projects, says UKIP MEP

Louise Bours, North West UKIP MEP

Spending money on projects overseas when our own NHS can’t afford new cancer drugs is a betrayal of the British people – according to North West UKIP MEP Louise Bours.

Her comments come following news that a ground breaking drug that will revolutionise cancer treatment and outcomes, will not be used by the NHS as it doesn’t have enough money – Ms Bours highlights in contrast that the UK donates £12bn per year to other countries.

In trials held over the summer, twice as many patients survived when they used a new drug Nivolumab, as did those on traditional chemotherapy.

Experts consider its invention to be the most significant breakthrough in 20 years – with some patients’ tumours shrinking after just a few months.

The drug is one of the first of a new wave of immunotherapy treatments, which harness the body’s own immune system and teach it to attack tumours.

NHS watchdog NICE says the drug is too expensive to be provided to patients in the UK despite it being offered to cancer victims in Germany and the US.

Its committee recognised Nivolumab was ‘clinically effective’ – but said that at £63,200 a year it ‘could not be considered a cost-effective use of NHS resources’.

On hearing the verdict, UKIP’s Health Spokesman, Louise Bours MEP said: “Surely if the government has enough of our money that they can give almost £33m every day to foreign governments, surely it can pay £63,200 on a drug to keep someone alive for another year, especially since that person has probably spent most of their life paying far more than that into the system.

“The public will be outraged to learn that our foreign aid is going on projects such as anti-litter campaigns in Jordan, television game-shows in Ethiopia, and a plaque on a wall in Panama about equality.

“Much of the money goes to countries that have decided to spend their money on nuclear bombs and space programmes rather than feeding their own people. Why should we suffer as a result of their decisions?

“This disgusting betrayal by our government needs reversing.

“Our government should be putting our people’s health first. This drug should be available to anyone that needs it, and it that means Jordan has a litter problem as a result, I can live with that.”