Posted by Michael Wonder on 01 Jun 2017
Britain backs first-line use of Merck's Keytruda under cancer fund
31 May 2017 - Britain's cost-effectiveness agency NICE has decided that Merck & Co's immunotherapy drug Keytruda can be used in previously untreated lung cancer patients under special funding arrangements.
NICE said on Wednesday that it could not recommend routine use of the medicine in newly diagnosed patients, given the drug's high cost and uncertainties about overall survival benefits.
But the agency backed Keytruda use within the Cancer Drugs Fund, signalling that it had the potential to satisfy the criteria for routine use on the National Health Service for this group of patients but needs more investigation.
