The plight of a Dundee mother-of-two suffering from an inoperable form of skin cancer was raised at the Scottish Parliament this week.
Dundee City West MSP Joe FitzPatrick highlighted the case of Fiona Falconer, who was diagnosed with stage four melanoma in June after battling the killer disease three years previously.
The 45-year-old from Gowrie Park needs Ipilimumab a new cancer treatment not yet available in Scotland.
Mr FitzPatrick asked First Minister Alex Salmond what the Scottish Government could do to ensure that pharmaceutical companies brought such drugs forward for use in Scotland.
Mr Salmond revealed that the Scottish Medicines Consortium (SMC) has approached the drug manufacturers, Bristol-Myers Squibb, asking them to apply for use in Scotland.
The MSP took action after it was discovered that the drug had not yet been submitted to the SMC despite being submitted for approval to the equivalent authority in England and Wales.
The drug was the subject of extensive studies into its effectiveness and safety by the European Medicines Agency earlier this year and was granted authorisation for sales throughout the EU in July.
The UK-wide Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency then added it to its list of licensed medications in August.
Mr FitzPatrick said: ”I am really concerned that the manufacturer Bristol-Myers Squibb has not submitted this potentially life-saving treatment to the Scottish Medicines Consortium so that it can be recommended to local health boards to be used in treating cancer patients with melanoma in Scotland.
”Hopefully this will move things along.”
Photo PA.