NICE ruling a blow for Roche's Perjeta

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."