Posted by Michael Wonder on 12 Feb 2019
Yescarta rejected among other SMC decisions
12 February 2019 - Gilead's CAR-T therapy Yescarta (axicabtagene ciloleucel) has been rejected by the Scottish Medicines Consortium (SMC) for use on NHS Scotland.
The decision means that patients with aggressive forms of non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL), including relapsed or refractory diffuse large B-Cell lymphoma and primary mediastinal large B-cell lymphoma, who have potentially exhausted all treatment options, will not be able to access this technology through the NHS in Scotland.
The personalised cell therapy is already available in England and Wales, but in Scotland: “Despite the additional flexibility provided by our PACE process, the committee was unable to accept axicabtagene ciloleucel (Yescarta) for lymphoma as there was uncertainty in the company’s evidence around its long-term benefits and its cost effectiveness”, SMC chairman Dr Alan MacDonald explained.
