The NHS could improve patients’ access to new cancer treatments by paying different prices for drugs depending on the disease they are used to treat, concludes a group of experts from across academia and industry.

The consensus panel, representing 16 leading academic institutions, charities, stakeholder groups and pharmaceutical companies, also called for the Government to consider tying prices of drugs to the benefits they deliver for patients.

Flexible pricing models to help make new medicines more cost-effective were among nine recommendations for faster and wider access to innovative treatments – drawn up following a summit held by The Institute of Cancer Research, London.

Members of the consensus panel included leading experts from the academic and charity sectors – The Institute of Cancer Research (ICR), UCL, Cancer Research UK and Breast Cancer Now – alongside sector organisations the Ethical Medicines Industry Group and the Faculty of Pharmaceutical Medicine.

The panel also included a group of leading pharmaceutical and biotech companies: Abbvie, Bionical Emas, Bristol Myers Squibb, Immedica, Incyte Biosciences UK, Janssen, Merck, Pfizer, Roche Products Ltd and Sanofi.

The group’s nine-point plan recommended varying a drug’s price according to ‘indication’ – meaning a particular condition for which a treatment is approved. That way, companies could reduce the price of a drug for a certain disease, where it would otherwise not be cost-effective, without having to do so across the board.

“Being able to vary a drug’s unit price or apply discounts across multiple indications could encourage companies to bring drugs to market for new conditions, increasing access to treatments in areas of unmet need,” the experts said.

The consensus group also backed proposals for the NHS to only pay the full agreed price for a drug when it delivers the anticipated benefits. So-called outcome-based pricing would be “a promising way of ensuring the NHS gets value for money for innovative new cancer medicines while providing access to the newest and most exciting treatments for patients”, the panel said.

Members of the panel advised that the NHS would need better infrastructure if it was to collect the detailed prescribing data required to support new models of drug pricing. “We recommend that the Government and pharmaceutical industry work together to expand the necessary digital infrastructure and personnel, so drug prices can be aligned with outcomes or varied by indication,” they said.