NICE approves Yondelis
pharmafile | February 24, 2010 | News story | Sales and Marketing | NICE, PharmaMar, Yondelis
Cancer drug Yondelis has been approved by NICE for use on the NHS, but only after the manufacturer offered to meet the cost of anyone needing more than five cycles.
NICE had originally said the cost was too high – a complaint it made this month about three drugs it turned down: Bristol Myers-Squibb’s Sprycel and Novartis’ Tasigna and Afinitor.
Yondelis (trabectedin) has been recommended for the treatment of a group of rare cancers, soft tissue sarcomas, for which there have been no new treatments for more than a quarter of a century.
The disease develops in soft body tissue such as fat, muscle and in blood vessels and is thought to affect up to 600 people in England and Wales.
The brand is marketed in Europe by PharmaMar, a subsidiary of Spanish group Zeltia, and five treatment cycles is the average number received by patients in the company’s STS-201 trial.
The drug works by damaging the DNA in cancer cells to stop them growing and spreading; chemotherapy has a poor response when treating advanced cases, and Yondelis could extend life by at least three months, NICE says.
“Being able to recommend trabectedin for use on the NHS represents a step forward in the care of this group of patients who may have very few treatment options left,” says Dr Carole Longson, NICE health technology evaluation centre director.
The final guidance recommends it for patients whose treatment with anthracylines and ifosfamide has failed or if they are intolerant of or contraindicated to them.
More than 50 types of tumour make up the group known as soft tissue sarcomas, almost half of which affect the limbs.
They are most common among people in their fifties and life expectancy in patients with metastasis is 8-12 months after receiving first-line therapy.
Earlier this month NICE clinical and public health director Professor Peter Littlejohns pointedly asked the pharma industry to stump up more cash for its treatments.
“It would be heartening to hear that the pharmaceutical company manufacturers are prepared to share some of the very high cost of the drugs with the NHS,” he said.
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