Firm loses lung cancer drug appeal
Updated on 22 August 2007
A pharmaceutical company has lost an appeal over a lung cancer drug, it has been announced.
The National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (Nice) issued final NHS guidance rejecting pemetrexed (Alimta) for the treatment of locally advanced or metastatic non-small-cell lung cancer.
The drug cannot cure people with lung cancer but it can boost their life expectancy.
Nice stood by its draft guidance for England and Wales, published last year, despite an appeal from the drug's manufacturers, Eli Lilly.
The firm was successful last month in persuading Nice to accept Alimta for treating people with asbestos-related cancer on the NHS.
Nice published new draft guidance following that Eli Lilly appeal, saying the drug could be used for advanced mesothelioma.
Commenting on the new lung cancer guidance, Andrew Dillon, chief executive of Nice, said Eli Lilly's latest appeal had failed.
He said: "The independent appraisal committee was not persuaded that the evidence presented provided a robust demonstration of the clinical and cost effectiveness of pemetrexed compared with either docetaxel (Taxotere) or best supportive care and therefore concluded that the drug is not an effective use of NHS resources."
A statement from Eli Lilly said: "The clinical trial data for Alimta in second line non-small-cell lung cancer that supported this Nice appraisal demonstrated that Alimta had comparable efficacy to the current standard of care (docetaxel).
"While the Committee noted that Alimta was associated with fewer life-threatening and severe haematological toxicities and hospitalisations, there was however no difference between treatments in terms of symptom control and they therefore questioned whether the use of Alimta would improve quality of life despite the improved toxicity profile. As such we are extremely disappointed with these conclusions as additional costs (over the current standard of care), related to the provision of Alimta for the treatment of non-small-cell lung cancer, and the associated reduction in incidence of life threatening toxicities, are around £500 per month for three or four months."
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