NICE recommends continued access to Kymriah for ALL

The UK’s National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) recommends Swiss pharma giant Novartis’ (NOVN: VX) Kymriah (tisagenlecleucel) as a treatment option for children and young adults in England and Wales with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) that is refractory, in relapse post-transplant or in second or later relapse.

The NICE recommendation clears the way for routine funding for tisagenlecleucel – which has already treated over 133 patients with ALL - following exit from the Cancer Drugs Fund (CDF) and is a positive step for continued access to the treatment.

The recommendation was based on longer follow-up clinical data from the ELIANA, ENSIGN, and B2101J trials that were initially used at approval in 2018 as well as new data collected during its use through the Cancer Drugs Fund (CDF).