Scottish Medicines Consortium accepts five new treatments for routine use in NHS Scotland

The Scottish Medicines Consortium (SMC) has accepted 5 new medicines for routine use in NHS Scotland. Two of these medicines, used to treat different types of lung cancer, were accepted through the Patient and Clinician Engagement (PACE) process, for medicines that treat end of life and very rare conditions. Crizotinib (Xalkori) can be used to treat a very rare form of advanced, incurable lung cancer where the cancer cells contain certain defects affecting the gene responsible for a key protein called anaplastic lymphoma kinase. Crizotinib targets this specific kind of cancer cell and is thought to be a therapeutic advancement.