British drug-cost watchdog recommends use of AbbVie’s ovarian cancer therapy
June 4 (Reuters) – The UK’s cost-effectiveness watchdog on Thursday recommended AbbVie’s “guided missile” cancer treatment Elahere for patients with ovarian cancer, a difficult-to-treat type.
The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) said the Elahere drug would be made available to patients under a confidential commercial agreement between AbbVie and the state-run NHS.
The decision comes after NICE revised its value assessment framework as part of a wider UK-US deal last year to secure zero tariffs on British pharmaceutical products and medical technology in exchange for increased drug spending and changes to assessment criteria.
The new framework will expand access to treatments previously rejected on cost grounds.
Critically ill patients whose cancer does not respond to standard chemotherapy will now be able to access Elahere via the NHS. The drug was previously limited to clinical trials, specialized care or humanitarian use.
NICE said around 270 patients would be eligible for the drug in the first year, with this number rising to around 420 in the third year.
The drug will be initially funded through the Cancer Medicines Fund before being put into routine operation 90 days after the final guidance is published.
Elahere is an antibody-drug conjugate designed to precisely target cancer cells while limiting damage to healthy tissue.
NICE said it was given every three weeks and had a more manageable side effect profile than chemotherapy.
“This proposal is the first in over 20 years to give people diagnosed with ovarian cancer an additional option at a critical stage,” said Victoria Clare, chief executive of UK-based ovarian cancer support charity Ovacome.
In a late-stage study in 453 patients, the drug prolonged survival by an average of 16.9 months and delayed disease progression by up to 5.6 months, compared with the 13.3-month survival extension and approximately four-month delay in progression seen with chemotherapy.
($1 = 0.7449 pounds)
(Reporting by Mariam Sunny in Bengaluru; Editing by Shinjini Ganguli)
