Further calls for NICE flexibility after ‘flawed’ Enhertu refusal

A pair of big pharma companies have become the latest drugmakers to take aim at the UK's National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE), the cost-effectiveness watchdog for England and Wales.

On the day that French firm Sanofi (Euronext: SAN) lashed out over the NICE’s refusal to recommend its rare disease drug Xenpozyme (olipudase alfa), Japan’s Daiichi Sankyo (TYO: 4568) and Anglo-Swedish company AstraZeneca (LSE: AZN) have launched a broadside of their own.

The firms are furious the NICE’s final draft guidance that does not recommend Enhertu (trastuzumab deruxtecan) to treat adults with unresectable or metastatic HER2-low breast cancer who have received prior chemotherapy in the metastatic setting or developed disease recurrence during or within six months of completing adjuvant chemotherapy.