Thank you for your request for information about the following:

Request

You asked us:

‘I request the following information concerning the cancer medicine pembrolizumab (brand name Keytruda).

1. For each of the past 10 financial years (2014/15 to 2023/24, or the most recent 10-year period available), please provide top 10 medicines by total estimated cost.

2. For each of the past 10 financial years (2014/15 to 2023/24, or the most recent 10-year period available), please provide the total expenditure on Pembrolizumab.

3. For each of the past 10 financial years (2014/15 to 2023/24, or the most recent 10-year period available), please provide the number of individual patients treated with Pembrolizumab. If it is not possible to provide this information, please explain why.

4. For each of the six patients who were/have been on Pembrolizumab for the longest, what has it cost the NHS per patient? If it is not possible to provide this information, please explain why.’

The NHS Business Services Authority (NHSBSA) received your request on 23 October 2025.

We have handled your request under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) 2000.

Our response

Question 1

Under Section 21 of the FOIA, we are not required to provide information in response to a request if it is already reasonably accessible to you.

Post-2019 data:

The information you requested is available on our website. You can access the data via the summary tables which contain a breakdown of costs by British National Formulary (BNF) presentation: https://opendata.nhsbsa.net/dataset/secondary-care-medicines-data-indicative-price.

You can also find top 20 list of chemical substances ranked by net ingredient cost on our website: https://www.nhsbsa.nhs.uk/statistical-collections/prescription-cost-analysis-england. To access the data, navigate to ‘Resource List’ on the link provided, and then select ‘Additional Tables’.

Pre-2019 data:

The information you have requested is available at: https://digital.nhs.uk/data-and-information/publications/statistical/prescription-cost-analysis.

You can access a breakdown by BNF Presentation within each Prescription Cost Analysis (PCA) for the relevant calendar year. Select the ‘PCA –Tables' link for each relevant year. You can then find the requested data in the ‘Individual Preparations’ tab of the download.

Please note this data is based upon prescribing that has been either prescribed or dispensed within a community setting only.

To view FOIA section 21: https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2000/36/section/21

Further support

Questions 2 - 4
Having reviewed your request, I believe that it is possible that NHS England (NHSE) may hold some or all of the information you require.

You can contact NHSE at:

NHS England
PO Box 16738
Redditch, B97 9PT

Email: england.contactus@nhs.net

Alternatively, individual hospital trusts may hold the information. This link takes you to a directory of hospital trusts: https://www.england.nhs.uk/publication/nhs-provider-directory/