SMC rejects Sutent for Scotland's NHS

The Scottish Medicines Consortium, the body responsible for recommending drugs to the National Health Service in Scotland, has rejected the use of global drug behemoth Pfizer's Sutent (sunitinib) for cancer of the kidney. James Whale, a campaigner and founder of the James Whale Fund for Kidney Cancer, told the BBC that "the SMC has effectively issued a death sentence to the 660 patients living with kidney cancer in Scotland."

The SMC said that the drug could not be used as a first-line treatment for the disease because of its cost, L23,000 ($46,000) per patient. In an attempt to persuade the agency to rule otherwise, Pfizer had offered to cut the price of Sutent by 5% and offer the first treatment cycle for free, reducing the cost per patient by L4,000.