NICE ruling a blow for Roche's Perjeta

15 June 2018

The National Institute of Health and Care Excellence (NICE), the UK's chief cost-effectiveness watchdog in healthcare, has stung the Swiss pharma giant Roche (ROG: SIX) by declining to recommend its combination therapy of Perjeta (pertuzumab) and Herceptin (trastuzumab) for breast cancer patients.

The treatment, which has been approved by both the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and European Medicines Agency (EMA), has demonstrated consistently strong trial results including a 23%-24% lower risk of redeveloping cancer or death.

Despite these findings, the NICE report highlighted a "lack of evidence" to suggest the treatment would substantially improve life expectancy. The committee concluded that "any incremental treatment benefit of pertuzumab is likely to be small."

This article is accessible to registered users, to continue reading please register for free. A free trial will give you access to exclusive features, interviews, round-ups and commentary from the sharpest minds in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology space for a week. If you are already a registered user please login. If your trial has come to an end, you can subscribe here.

Try before you buy

Free

7 day trial access

Take a Free Trial

All the news that moves the needle in pharma and biotech
Exclusive features, podcasts, interviews, data analyses and commentary from our global network of life sciences reporters.
Receive The Pharma Letter daily news bulletin, free forever.

Become a subscriber

£820

Or £77 per month

Subscribe Now

Unfettered access to industry-leading news, commentary and analysis in pharma and biotech.
Updates from clinical trials, conferences, M&A, licensing, financing, regulation, patents & legal, executive appointments, commercial strategy and financial results.
Daily roundup of key events in pharma and biotech.
Monthly in-depth briefings on Boardroom appointments and M&A news.
Choose from a cost-effective annual package or a flexible monthly subscription

The Pharma Letter is an extremely useful and valuable Life Sciences service that brings together a daily update on performance people and products. It’s part of the key information for keeping me informed

Chairman, Sanofi Aventis UK