Posted by Michael Wonder on 05 Jul 2016
UK cost agency rejects Bristol's Opdivo for kidney cancer
5 July 2016 - Bristol-Myers Squibb's immunotherapy drug Opdivo is not worth using on the state health service for treating kidney cancer, Britain's healthcare cost-effectiveness watchdog said on Tuesday.
The draft decision from NICE is a blow for the U.S. drugmaker, which has had mixed fortunes under a British system.
Opdivo is recommended by NICE for melanoma but not for lung cancer. Bristol-Myers said the latest NICE verdict highlighted the limitations of the current process for accessing first-in-class medicines on the country's National Health Service.
