UK cancer sufferer to appeal in Herceptin case
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A British woman with early-stage breast cancer lost a test case legal bid on Wednesday to force her health authority to pay for the potentially life-saving drug Herceptin, but vowed on Wednesday to continue her battle.
High Court judge Justice Bean ruled that Swindon Primary Care Trust in Wiltshire, which had refused Ann Marie Rogers, 54, the costly drug treatment, need not pay for Herceptin, made by Switzerland’s Roche.
Summarising his decision, the judge said that while some primary care trusts do fund Herceptin for early-stage breast cancer sufferers that was not Swindon’s policy, other than in exceptional cases.
“The court’s task is not to say which policy is better but to decide whether Swindon’s policy is arbitrary or irrational and thus unlawful,” said Justice Bean.
“I find that Swindon’s policy is not unlawful, whether in English domestic law or under the jurisprudence of the European Court of Human Rights.
“Accordingly, despite my sympathy with Ms Rogers’ plight, I must dismiss the claim,” he said.
But Rogers, a mother of three, expressed her anger at the ruling and said she would continue to fight to receive the drug free of charge.
“Ann Marie Rogers is devastated at the outcome of this judicial review but is determined to take her fight for this drug to the Court of Appeal,” her lawyer Yogi Amin told reporters outside court.
“Ann Marie has an aggressive form of breast cancer and has been let down by her health authority. Access to life-saving cancer treatment depends on where you live in England and Wales,” he added.
“A clear direction of the availability of Herceptin for early-stage breast cancer sufferers is now needed.”
It was the first case over Herceptin to reach the High Court and could set a precedent for patients seeking access to the drug on the National Health Service.
At an earlier hearing, the judge was told that Rogers felt as though she had been given “a death sentence” as a result of having been initially refused the drug, which costs about 20,000 pounds ($35,000) a year.
Herceptin is one of a new generation of targeted therapies, which attack only cancer cells and are tolerated much better than traditional chemotherapy.
The drug is only licensed for use in women with advanced breast cancer, although doctors can use their discretion to prescribe it in other cases.
Research has shown Herceptin can help patients in the early stages of breast cancer but many health authorities say they will only fund treatment in exceptional cases.
Rogers has been receiving the drug since last year when another High Court judge held she had an “arguable case”.
He gave the go-ahead for this month’s challenge to the Trust’s stance and ordered that it should provide the drug for Rogers pending the hearing.
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