2 July 2019 - Patients in England will be among those who are first to benefit from Sanofi and Regeneron’s new cancer immunotherapy Libtayo, after NICE recommended funding for a form of skin cancer immediately after European approval.

In a bid to bring cancer drugs to patients as fast as possible, NICE begins its cost-effectiveness deliberations immediately after the CHMP makes a positive recommendation, which nearly always results in European approval within a few months.

This time the system has worked like clockwork with NICE recommending funding for Libtayo (cemiplimab) in final draft guidance the day after the drug was granted its first marketing authorisation in Europe for advanced cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma patients, who cannot receive surgery or radiation therapy.

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