Last year the United Kingdom government sent £280 million in foreign aid payments to India. Why? India is a country that has its own space programme and hosts a Formula 1 Grand Prix.
The pharmaceutical giant Roche offers a breast cancer treatment that costs our NHS £90,000 per treatment. A Herceptin-style drug that can offer some women with advanced breast cancer nearly six months of extra life has been turned down for use in the NHS because of its high cost.
In draft guidance now open to consultation, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (Nice) blames the manufacturers, Roche, who are asking for more than £90,000 per patient, which is far more than any comparable treatment.
Argue the pragmatics if you like. But the amount of aid that we send to India could pay for more than 3,000 treatments with this cancer drug for our own people. Is it not time to look to our own first before we send huge sums of money in overseas aid?
I reckon that is almost a rhetorical question....
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