A BREAST cancer charity has praised an MP for introducing a private members' bill that could give thousands of UK patients access to life-saving treatments.

The Off-patent Drugs Bill is designed to make medicines that have fallen out of patent but have proved effective for clinical uses outside of their original licence routinely available on the NHS.

Torfaen Labour MP Nick Thomas-Symonds introduced the private members’ bill into the Commons on Wednesday [June 24] after it was drawn eighth in a parliamentary ballot.

He made the decision to introduce the bill after having lost his Blaenavon grandmother Olwyn Thomas – who inspired him to go into politics – to breast cancer in 1998.

If successful, the bill would benefit patients at risk of developing, or living with a range of serious and chronic conditions including breast cancer, multiple sclerosis and Parkinson’s.

The Breast Cancer Now charity is championing the bill as it could improve access to a drug that reduces the risk of breast cancer developing.

It could also improve access to another medicine which slashes the risk of breast cancer spreading from the breast to the bone, at which point it becomes incurable.

The bill would also benefit the NHS, as off-patent drugs are often available at a very low price.

Breast Cancer Now said it was the type of money-saving opportunity the cash-strapped NHS could not afford to miss.

Mr Thomas-Symonds said: “I’m proud to be working with Breast Cancer Now in taking this bill to Parliament – I genuinely believe that it has the potential to benefit hundreds of thousands of people, not only in Torfaen but across the whole of the UK.”

The problem the bill seeks to address occurs if a drug is shown to be useful for a new purpose after its original patent has expired.

Without a patent in place to protect the investment of pharmaceutical companies, there is no incentive for them to sponsor the treatment and approve it for use on the NHS.

The bill would put into UK law a duty on the Government to step in where there is no incentive for drug companies to act and seek to license and approve off-patent treatments for use on the NHS.

Sally Greenbrook, policy manager at Breast Cancer Now, said: “The clinical benefits of some off-patent drugs go far beyond breast cancer, so we’re hopeful the bill will be well received in parliament.

“Given the minimal cost of many of these drugs, alongside their effectiveness, surely this is exactly the type of money-saving opportunity the cash-strapped NHS can’t afford to miss.”