Easington MP Grahame Morris is backing Breast Cancer Now’s urgent petition calling on the pharmaceutical company, Gilead, to provide free-of-charge access to promising new treatment Trodelvy (sacituzumab govitecan)1 to all eligible patients with triple-negative incurable secondary breast cancer.

Trodelvy could offer women living with triple-negative secondary breast cancer who face short prognoses and limited treatment options the hope of extra months with loved ones and to do what matters most to them.2

However, while the exciting new treatment has now been licensed, hundreds of women3 in England face an agonising wait of up to eight months to access Trodelvy, until a NICE decision on routine NHS access next year, 4 after Gilead failed to reach an agreement with NHS England to provide immediate access to the treatment.

While Gilead will introduce a pre-reimbursement access scheme for Trodelvy shortly after licensing, this limited scheme will not guarantee that all women who need this drug will be able to receive it.5

Grahame Morris MP, Vice-Chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Cancer has urged constituents across East Durham to sign Breast Cancer Now’s ‘It’s Time for Trodelvy’ petition which calls on Gilead to agree to an interim access arrangement with NHS England and provide the drug free-of-charge to all eligible women who desperately need it and don’t have time to wait.

Grahame Morris MP for Easington said:

“The extra time that Trodelvy could bring would mean so much to women with triple-negative secondary breast cancer, offering them the hope of more time to spend with their friends and family.

That’s why I’m supporting Breast Cancer Now’s campaign to ensure all eligible women can access this drug as soon as possible.

“I want to urge people across East Durham to join me and sign the petition. It only takes a few minutes, but you could help change the lives of women living with triple-negative secondary breast cancer and their families.”

Mia Rosenblatt, Associate Director of Policy, Evidence and Influencing at Breast Cancer Now, said:

“It’s devastating that despite the licensing of Trodelvy, women with triple-negative secondary breast cancer may now have an agonising wait of up to eight months to access the promising new treatment they so desperately need – and for many, this will be too late.

“Thank you to everyone who has already signed the petition to call on pharmaceutical company Gilead to provide Trodelvy free-of-charge on the NHS to all eligible women ahead of a decision around its routine use in 2022.

“The more people who sign the petition, the more likely it is that we will be able to ensure that all women who need Trodelvy are granted access without delay and are given the chance of more time to live. Sign our ‘It’s Time for Trodelvy’ petition now to help us turn the tide on triple-negative secondary breast cancer.”

Sign Breast Cancer Now’s ‘It’s Time for Trodelvy’ petition: breastcancernow.org/trodelvymp

ENDS

Notes

1. Sacituzumab govitecan (Trodelvy) is a targeted (biological) therapy. It delivers a chemotherapy drug straight to cancer cells which have the protein Trop-2 on their surface. This is the case in many types of cancer, including breast cancer. This treatment is suitable for patients with unresectable locally advanced or secondary triple negative breast cancer who have had at least two prior therapies.

News of Trodelvy’s licensing, through the Project Orbis scheme, came only a day after that of a lung cancer drug, Sotorasib, and four months after another drug, both of which were successfully made immediately available to patients following licensing via an interim access scheme agreed by the drug companies Amgen and AstraZeneca with NHS England.

2. The phase 3 ASCENT trial showed a significant benefit of sacituzumab govitecan (Trodelvy) when compared with chemotherapy with respect to progression free survival and overall survival. Among all randomly assigned patients (those with or without brain metastases), the median progression free survival was 4.8 months with sacituzumab govitecan and 1.7 months with chemotherapy. For the same population, the median overall survival was 11.8 months with sacituzumab govitecan and 6.9 months with chemotherapy. In patients without brain metastases the median progression free survival was 5.6 months with sacituzumab govitecan and 1.7 months with chemotherapy. The median overall survival was 12.1 months with sacituzumab govitecan and 6.7 months with chemotherapy.

3. There is no exact number on how many patients may be eligible for this drug and there remains a wider issue around lack of data about how many people are living with secondary breast cancer and the treatments they are receiving meaning it’s not possible to calculate how many people may be receiving certain treatments. Around 15% of all breast cancers – over 8,000 cases a year in the UK – are triple negative, but we do not have numbers for how many women with locally advanced or secondary breast cancer have triple negative breast cancer. We would estimate that hundreds of people may be able to access this drug if an interim access agreement was put in place.

4. The NICE appraisal for Trodelvy is currently in development and the provisional schedule suggests that the committee meeting will take place on 15 March 2022 so a decision will follow shortly after this.

5. Gilead will introduce a limited pre-reimbursement access scheme for Trodelvy shortly after licensing that will be free-of-charge.

Triple negative breast cancer This is the name given to breast cancers that lack the three receptors which are normally used to classify breast cancers: oestrogen receptor (ER), progesterone receptor (PR) and human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2).

Around 15% of all breast cancers – over 8,000 cases a year in the UK – are triple negative.

Triple negative breast cancer is more common in:

• Women who have inherited an altered BRCA gene

• Black women

• Women who have not yet reached the menopause

• Women under 40

About Breast Cancer Now

• Breast Cancer Now is the UK’s first comprehensive breast cancer charity, combining world-class research and life-changing care.

• Breast Cancer Now’s ambition is that, by 2050, everyone who develops breast cancer will live and be supported to live well.

• Breast Cancer Now, the research and care charity, launched in October 2019, created by the merger of specialist support and information charity Breast Cancer Care and leading
research charity Breast Cancer Now.

• Visit breastcancernow.org or follow us on Twitter or on Facebook.

• Anyone looking for support or information can call Breast Cancer Now’s free Helpline on 0808 800 6000.