Roche CEO Slams `Stupid' U.K. Decision to Drop Some Cancer Drugs
- NHS decision to stop funding some cancer drugs is `arbitrary'
- Roche may not be able to do some trials in U.K. in future
Roche CEO Severin Schwan
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Roche Holding AG Chief Executive Officer Severin Schwan blasted a U.K. decision to stop funding some cancer drugs, including the company’s blockbuster Avastin, calling the choice “stupid” because it focuses on the price of medicines rather than potential savings to the health system.
The U.K.’s National Health Service said Sept. 4 that the Cancer Drug Fund set up by Prime Minister David Cameron in 2011 would no longer pay for treatment with Avastin, Roche’s second-best-selling product, for cervical, breast and colorectal cancer. The ruling also affects a Roche breast cancer medicine called Kadcyla.