Alimta recommended as maintenance therapy
pharmafile | March 1, 2010 | News story | Sales and Marketing | Alimta, Cancer, NSCLC, lilly
NICE has recommended Alimta as a maintenance treatment for people with locally advanced or metastatic non-small cell lung cancer.
Patients must have the non-squamous sub-type of the disease, and to have not progressed immediately following platinum-based chemotherapy first-line chemotherapy.
Alimta (pemetrexed for injection) was approved for the indication in July 2009 in the US and Europe.
The drug is already approved by NICE as a first-line treatment in combination with cisplatin for locally advanced and metastatic NSCLC for patients with other than predominantly squamous cell (nonsquamous) histology, as well as a treatment for metastatic pleural mesothelioma, also used in combination with cisplatin.
“This decision is a promising step toward recognising the value of Alimta for patients, payer organisations and doctors,” said John H. Johnson, president of Lilly Oncology. “Most importantly, it means more advanced non-squamous NSCLC patients may have access to treatment that can potentially prolong their lives.”
Maintenance therapy represents a new approach in treating advanced non-squamous NSCLC. Traditionally, patients who respond to first-line chemotherapy are monitored until the disease reoccurs and are then treated with a second-line regimen. In maintenance therapy, rather than halting further treatment until disease progression, patients who have disease control following first-line therapy are treated immediately with a maintenance regimen.
The NICE recommendation was based on data that demonstrated it improved overall survival for advanced non-squamous NSCLC cancer patients in the maintenance setting. The appraisal committee concluded that the evidence submitted fulfilled the end of life criteria.
The ruling is a Final Appraisal Determination, which will be finalised into full guidance by the summer.
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