NICE recommends six drugs in final guidance
pharmafile | January 27, 2016 | News story | Research and Development, Sales and Marketing | NHS, NICE
NICE has published final recommendations approving drug treatments for ovarian cancer, prostate cancer, multiple myeloma, gastric cancer and idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis for routine funding by the NHS.
The regulator recommends AstraZeneca’s Lynparza (olaparib) for maintenance treatment of relapsed platinum-sensitive ovarian, fallopian tube and peritoneal cancers which have tested positive for the BRCA1 or BRCA2 mutations, and where patients have responded to three or more doses of platinum-based chemotherapy. After 15 months of treatment, AstraZeneca would be obliged to fund patients’ continued use.
NICE also recommended two treatments for prostate cancer. Bayer’s Xofigo (radium 223 dichloride) was given the nod for treating adults with hormone relapsed prostate cancer, who have previously received docetaxel treatment; are experiencing symptoms from the disease spreading to their bones; or have no signs of cancer in any other organ. Xofigo is recommended only if it is provided by Bayer in a patient access scheme discount agreed as part of the appraisal.
The regulator also recommended Astellas’ Xtandi (enzalutamide) for the treatment of metastatic hormone-relapsed prostate cancer in patients with no or mild symptoms, after androgen deprivation treatment has stopped working, and before chemotherapy is needed.
Patients in England and Wales will also have routine NHS access to Novartis’ Farydak (panobinostat) for multiple myeloma, if they have had at least two prior therapies including Velcade (bortezomib) and an immunomodulatory agent. The drug – which works by disrupting a key mechanism which causes normal cells to turn cancerous – is only recommended by NICE if provided with the discount agreed in the patient access scheme. NICE originally rejected Farydak on a cost basis in draft guidance, but Novartis submitted a revised economic analysis which allowed the committee to recommend the drug.
Similarly, patient access scheme discounts are a condition of NICE’s recommendation of Boehringer Ingelheim’s Ofev (nintedanib) for idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF).
One drug that did not win the UK regulator’s approval, however, was Eli Lilly’s Cyramza (ramucirumab) for gastric (stomach) cancer, in patients where the cancer has spread or if they have cancer that develops at the point where the food pipe joins to the stomach. NICE said the drug’s efficacy profile was not sufficient to justify its high cost.
Joel Levy
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