This Breast Cancer Awareness Month, there has been a significant development in the treatment of the disease. On the 17th of September 2026, a revolutionary, life-extending drug was made available on the NHS in England for patients with incurable HER2 breast cancer. This decision comes after the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) announced that it was too expensive back in 2024.
Enhertu combines the targeted cancer drug trastuzumab and a chemotherapy drug known as deruxtecan. The mechanism of action involves trastuzumab attaching to the HER2 receptor to stop the growth of cancer cells, followed by deruxtecan entering the cancer cell and killing it. The treatment is given once every three weeks through a drip or a cannula inserted into a vein, for as long as it helps the patient.
This poses one question – why has this only been made available in England now if it was previously rejected due to not being cost-effective? The answer is a recent trade deal between the USA and the UK, which secured a zero per cent tariff on UK-made pharmaceutical exports for the USA in exchange for the UK government investing 25 per cent more into new medication. This, in combination with the adjustment of the amount of money paid by the NHS for every extra year of good quality life a medication can give (QALY), has facilitated the pivotal transformation necessary to change the lives of breast cancer patients greatly.
A USA-UK trade deal has resulted in the UK government investing 25 per cent more into new medication.
It’s about time that we saw this drug in operation across England, since it has been available to women in Scotland on the NHS since 2023. With its introduction, patients can experience an average of an extra seven months of life, with some gaining up to three years. Although Enhertu cannot be used to treat all breast cancer patients, those who have the HER2 subtype (around 15-20% of patients) can now hope to experience a whole new stage of life that they previously would never have believed they’d see.
Patients can experience an average of an extra seven months of life, with some gaining up to three years.
