Pfizer’s blood cancer drug first to be reappraised from Cancer Drug Fund
pharmafile | July 7, 2016 | News story | Research and Development, Sales and Marketing | Cancer, Cancer Drugs Fund, NICE, Pfizer, blood cancer, bosulif
The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (Nice) recommended US pharma giant Pfizer’s (NYSE: PFE) Bosulif (bosutinib) to treat a form of blood cancer, a drug which was previously only available through the Cancer Drugs Fund (CDF).
Bosutinib is the first drug to go through the reappraisal process, where Nice assesses the cost and clinical effectiveness of drugs currently in the old CDF. The current list price for bosutinib is around £45,000 per patient a year, however a discount for use in the NHS has been offered by the manufacturer, the regulator said in a statement.
David Montgomery, medical director, Pfizer Oncology UK said: “We are pleased Nice recognises that bosutinib is an efficacious and cost effective treatment. However, all too often UK patients don’t get access to the modern medicines they need because of the way the health system values and assess medicines. To keep up with advances in the development of more targeted medicines, the health system needs a different approach. It is not sustainable to ask companies to continuously drop the price for these medicines and it will impact our ability to make further medical progress if we do so.”
Bosutinib is used when other treatments for chronic myeloid leukaemia no longer work or cause severe side effects; it is estimated that around 80 new patients in England and Wales would be eligible for this treatment each year.
After the decision to reform the CDF, Nice began reappraising all drugs currently in the CDF in April 2016. As part of the reappraisal, the manufacturer submitted a further discount which was included in their additional cost analyses.
Professor Carole Longson, director of the Centre for Health Technology Evaluation at NICE, said: “The company positively engaged with our CDF reconsideration process and demonstrated that their drug can be cost effective, which resulted in a positive recommendation. This decision, when implemented, frees up funding in the CDF which can be spent on other new and innovative cancer treatments.”
Bosutinib is used to treat people with chronic myeloid leukaemia that have an abnormal chromosome – called the Philadelphia chromosome – that can lead to the overproduction of white blood cells.
Anjali Shukla
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