Response from the Department of Health and Social Care
On 27 April 2026, we wrote to the Department of Health and Social Care to express our concerns about the sudden closure of the free Expanded Access Programme (EAP) for DFMO (eflornithine/Iwilfin) in the UK and the impact this will have on children and families.
You can read the Government's response, dated 2 July 2026, below:
Dear Ms Jackson,
Thank you for your correspondence of 27 April to the Minister for Health about access to eflornithine (DFMO) through Expanded Access Programmes. I have been asked to reply, and I apologise for the delay in doing so.
I appreciate your concerns.
The Government understands why the closure of this programme will feel deeply disappointing for those who had hoped it might help. The Government has made it clear that DFMO is not currently licensed in the UK, and decisions about whether an Expanded Access Programme opens, continues or closes are made by the company running it, not by the Department of Health and Social Care, the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) or NHS England.
While Children already enrolled in the programme will be supported to complete their treatment, the Government recognises that it will be a blow for families whose children were expecting to start DFMO at the end of frontline therapy, and for whom there is currently no equivalent route available.
More broadly, the Government want to reassure you that it is committed to helping NHS patients with rare diseases get access to new treatments as quickly as possible. Where a medicine is licensed, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) assesses whether it should be routinely available on the NHS and aims, wherever it can, to publish guidance close to the point of licensing. When NICE recommends a cancer medicine, the NHS is then required to fund it from the date of that positive recommendation.
In this case, the Government understands that the manufacturer of DFMO has decided to withdraw from the MHRA and NICE processes. NHS England has encouraged the company to re-engage so that the necessary regulatory steps can be completed and a fair, sustainable route to access can be put in place for eligible patients. The MHRA and NICE have both made clear that they remain open to working with the company if new evidence becomes available that could support a future application for DFMO. At this point, the Government is limited in what more it can do.
I hope this reply is helpful in clarifying the position.
Yours sincerely,
Correspondence Officer
Ministerial Correspondence and Public Enquiries
Department of Health and Social Care
For further information about UK access to DFMO, please see our statement below.