Myeloma patient wins fight for drug not yet approved by NICE

A primary care trust’s refusal to fund a terminally ill cancer patient’s treatment with lenalidomide (Revlimid) was damned by the High Court last week as a decision that “no reasonable authority could have made on the application before it.”

Judge Simon Grenfell described West Sussex Primary Care Trust’s exceptional funding policy and its decision not to pay for the treatment for Colin Ross, who has multiple myeloma, as “logically flawed” and unlawful.

The judge, sitting at the High Court in London, quashed the trust’s decision and granted Colin Ross an interim injunction, pending any appeal. This allowed him to start receiving treatment …