Price cut not enough for Pixuvri
pharmafile | October 15, 2013 | News story | Sales and Marketing | Cell Therapeutics, NICE, pixuvri
NICE is still saying no to Cell Therapeutics’ lymphoma drug Pixuvri, despite the firm offering a discount on the treatment’s original price.
Pixuvri (pixantrone) is designed to treat an aggressive form of lymphoma, a cancer that develops in the body’s immune system.
This latest draft guidance saw NICE examine the clinical and cost effectiveness of Pixuvri as a treatment for aggressive non-Hodgkin’s B-cell lymphoma in patients whose cancer has either returned after treatment, or become resistant to current therapy, and who have already received at least two lines of treatment.
This new consultation comes after Cell Therapeutics submitted a patient access scheme to NICE, which offers a confidential price cut to its drug. But this was still not enough to sway the watchdog so the drug remains on the path to rejection once again.
This is now the third version of draft guidance published and the second consultation launched. Draft guidance was initially published for consultation in April 2013, followed by final draft guidance in June 2013, which was withdrawn during the appeal stage.
This was due to Cell Therapeutics submitting its patient access scheme, which changes the goalposts for NICE, and requires it to go back through its earlier processes to see if this new price makes the drug cost effective for the NHS in England.
But this has all been in vain for the firm as Sir Andrew Dillon, NICE’s chief executive, said: “Unfortunately, the committee concluded that this scheme – the details of which are confidential in accordance with the agreement between the company and the Department of Health – does not overcome the uncertainties in the evidence for the drug’s clinical effectiveness over and above current treatments for this disease.”
But consultees, including the company, healthcare professionals and members of the public are now able to comment on this draft guidance via the NICE website. The consultation is open until 4 November and any comments received will be ‘fully considered’ by NICE’s committee, the Institute said in a statement.
Pixuvri costs £553.50 per 20 ml vial, with the estimated cost of a course of treatment at £19,926, although the patient access scheme will reduce this overall cost. But NICE calculates that even with the price cut, the treatment’s incremental cost effectiveness ratio (ICER) would top the watchdog’s threshold for treatments, coming in at £30,700 per QALY gained.
NICE normally considered the cost effective range of a drug to be around £20,000 – £30,000 per QALY gained.
This, coupled with ‘substantial uncertainty’ relating to the effectiveness of the treatment compared with other treatments, is why Cell therapeutics’ drug is not being recommended for NHS England funding.
Ben Adams
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