Posted by Michael Wonder on 16 Nov 2017
Breast cancer patients to have routine access to two life extending drugs after new deal, say NICE in draft guidance
16 November 2017 - NICE has recommended palbociclib and ribociclib for routine funding after the companies lowered the prices and gave more evidence for their effectiveness.
Palbociclib (Ibrance) from Pfizer and ribociclib (Kisqali) from Norvatis, are recommended for people with hormone receptor (HR) positive, HER2 negative locally advanced or secondary breast cancer.
There are around 45,000 new diagnosis of breast cancer each year in England and it is estimated that around 8,000 of these people would be eligible for treatment with either palbociclib or ribociclib.
Although there are some uncertainties on how long they extend the life expectancy of people with this type of breast cancer, these promising new drugs were found to stall the growth of cancer for an extra 10 months on average. The committee also discussed other potential benefits, including reducing the need for chemotherapy.
