Breakthrough Breast Cancer said that NICE had gone “over and above their usual processes” to try to approve the drug, while Breast Cancer Campaign recognised the flexibility shown by NICE in its assessment of the drug.

NICE applied its flexibility for assessing the cost-effectiveness of end-of-life cancer drugs, but concluded in final draft guidance that the high price of the treatment is still unaffordable for used on the NHS.

Generally if a treatment costs more than £30,000 per quality-adjusted life years (QALY), it would not be recommended as cost-effective by NICE. In terms of Kadcyla, the QALY value was estimated at about £166,000.

Currently, the drug is being funded at its full list price of more than £90,000 per patient via the government’s Cancer Drugs Fund.

Kadcyla combines Herceptin (trastuzamab) with a chemotherapy agent to treat women with HER2-positive breast cancer that has spread to other parts of the body, cannot be surgically removed and has stopped responding to initial treatment.

The drug has been shown to extend overall survival by around 5.8 months when compared with treatment with lapatinib and capecitabine.

It is estimated that around 1,500 women in Britain could benefit from the drug every year.

For more details, go to: https://www.nice.org.uk/News/Article/pressure-grows-on-roche-to-lower-breast-cancer-drug-price