Pharma Delighted with New NICE Drug Approvals
The pharma industry in the UK has received a lift with news that five new drugs have been approved by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE).
The fly in the ointment is that the approvals are for purchases at a discounted price.
Novartis has had two cancer drugs approved at the reduced price:
- ceritinib for lung cancer and trametinib, as a combination with another oncology medication
- dabrafenic, for skin cancer
Meanwhile, NICE has announced that patients in England and Wales would be the first in Europe to receive a new immunotherapy cancer treatment, in a very fast appraisal - this was for Bristol-Myers Squibb's treatment, where the body's own immune systems are used to fight cancer cells.
Although they have been discounted, this is a boost to the pharma industry, who has been used to NICE refusing to authorise payments for high-cost cancer drugs.
The other two drugs recently to be given the thumbs up were Sanofi's and Amgen's cholesterol treatments, and AbbVie's hidradentitis Humira medication for treatment of inflamed glands.