27 November 2017 - A lack of clinical evidence proving its effectiveness has led NICE to publish draft guidance refusing to recommend Halaven (eribulin) in locally advanced or secondary breast cancer in English patients who have had only one chemotherapy regimen.

The cost-effectiveness watchdog already recommends Halaven, which is marketed by Japanese pharma major Eisai, as an option to be provided on the National Health Service for adults with this type of cancer who have already had two chemotherapy regimens.

But the NICE does not presently consider that the treatment provides value for money after a single round of chemotherapy. Patients who come into this category currently are usually offered an anthracycline, a taxane or capecitabine, depending on what they have had already.

Read The Pharma Letter article