NHS England recommended the use of Roche's Phesgo (pertuzumab/trastuzumab) for treating HER2-positive breast cancer. HER2-positive breast cancer accounts for 15% of all breast cancers.
Phesgo is a 5-minute treatment, reducing the number of hours in hospital from two and a half hours to five minutes.
NHS has made a contract with Roche. Three thousand six hundred patients are expected to benefit from the treatment; besides, patients who relied on other treatments can switch to Phesgo.
NHS, in its statement, announced that 228,000 patients were treated since the start of the pandemic, and hospitals across England carried two cancer procedures per patient during the last year.
Based on the NHS, NICE, and Roche's agreement, the product comes at no additional cost to NHS.
Phesgo comes as a series of innovations in cancer during the pandemic. NHS invested £160 million for 'Covid-friendly' cancer drugs, which are used to improve the immune system or reduce the number of hospital visits.