A DRUG company last night slashed the price of a new anti-cancer treatment, giving hope to sufferers who previously could not afford treatment.

Pfizer, the maker of kidney cancer drug Sutent, has yet to publicly announce the move.

Nearly a month ago, charities and specialist doctors learned that the cost of Sutent - at present about £30,000 a year for each patient - was being cut by thousands of pounds.

By making the first course free and cutting the price of further treatment by five per cent, Pfizer estimates the average saving for each patient will be between 19 and 29 per cent.

News of the price cut comes the day after The Northern Echo reported that a deal had been struck between the national drugs watchdog National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (Nice) and the maker of a cancer drug called Velcade, which means the NHS will only pay for the bone marrow cancer drug if it works.

Under the scheme, if the patient fails to respond to treatment, the drug company will give the NHS a refund.

There are hopes the move could lead to more expensive anti-cancer drugs being prescribed on the NHS.

Last night, Nice and the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry said the approach, pioneered by Janssen-Cilag, the maker of Velcade, could lead to similar agreements.

Despite Sutent being widely prescribed in Europe and the US, only a handful of NHS patients in the UK have been prescribed what has been hailed as a wonder drug. While it cannot cure advanced kidney cancer, Sutent has extended the lives of sufferers.

Dozens of patients with advanced kidney cancer, including three in the North-East, have been refused Sutent because primary care trust officials do not believe it is cost-effective.

Last night Kidney Cancer UK, the UK's leading kidney cancer charity, welcomed the move.

Pat Hanlon, co-ordinator of the charity's campaign to have Sutent funded by the NHS, said: "The price cut is a welcome development. Anything that is likely to make Sutent more available to kidney cancer patients is a good thing.

"It also helps with our objective to get this drug fully recognised in the UK."

But Mr Hanlon said little would be achieved unless more primary care trusts recognised the excellent results obtained by the drug in trials and agreed to fund it.

While the Scottish equivalent of Nice - the Scottish Medicines Consortium - is expected to consider funding Sutent as a first line kidney cancer drug today (TUES) Nice itself is not due to look at whether Sutent should be funded in England until next year at the earliest.

The breakthrough over Velcade has been welcomed by bone marrow cancer patient George King, 57, from Skelton, east Cleveland.

The deal was also hailed by Ray Devonport, 65, from Chilton, County Durham, whose wife, Kathleen, 63, has paid thousands of pounds to have the life-extending kidney cancer drug Nexavar prescribed to her privately after being refused funding for Sutent by County Durham Primary Care Trust.

"This sort of arrangement could work with other cancer drugs. Hopefully they could sort this out sooner rather than later so patients could benefit," he added.

Colin Smith, whose mother Pamela, has also been refused NHS funding for the bowel cancer drug Erbitux, also described the Velcade deal as "encouraging."

Last night a spokeswoman for Merck Serono, the makers of Erbitux, revealed that the company has also been piloting a similar scheme to the Velcade proposal but was unable to comment any further.

New evidence released yesterday at an international cancer drug conference in Chicago confirmed that Sutent more than doubled the length of time before kidney cancer progressed, with an average of 11 months compared to just over five months.

Specialists were also told that an international trial using the kidney cancer drug Nexavar which included patients treated in Newcastle also doubled the amount of time patients were able to survive without their tumours growing.

Nexavar was also shown to have a new application in extending the lives of patients with liver cancer.