NHS England approves GSK’s Tafinlar for funding by UK’s Cancer Drugs Fund

UK pharma major GlaxoSmithKline’s (LSE: GSK) Tafinlar (dabrafenib) is now available for metastatic melanoma patients in England after it was approved by NHS England to be routinely funded by the Cancer Drugs Fund (CDF) yesterday.

The European Medicines Agency granted marketing authorization for Tafinlar in monotherapy for the treatment of adult patients with unresectable melanoma or metastatic melanoma in August last year. Last month Tafinlar was approved by the US Food and Drug Administration in combination with Mekinist (trametinib). The melanoma drug market is forecast by Decision Resources to grow to $1.5 billion in 2020 in the world’s leading markets.

Tafinlar is indicated for melanoma with a mutated BRAF protein – specifically the BRAF V600 genetic mutation. If found early and confined to the skin, melanoma can usually be removed with surgery, but sometimes melanoma can spread to other parts of the body. If melanoma metastasizes, it becomes more difficult to treat and can be fatal.