NICE recommends Takeda’s brentuximab vedotin for HL

The UK’s health technology assessor the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) has recommended brentuximab vedotin in combination with doxorubicin, vinblastine and dacarbazine (AVD) to treat adult patients with untreated stage 3 or 4 CD30+ Hodgkin lymphoma (HL), within final draft guidance (FDG), the local subsidiary of Japan’s Takeda Pharma (TYO: 4502) announced today.

Hodgkin lymphoma is a rare disease with an estimated 800 patients diagnosed with stage 3 or 4 HL in England every year. One of the main frontline treatments for newly diagnosed untreated stage 3 or 4 CD30+ Hodgkin lymphoma patients is multi-agent chemotherapy, such as ABVD (doxorubicin, bleomycin, vinblastine, dacarbazine).

The company noted that the recommendation from the NICE, which reflects the marketing authorization for untreated stage 3 or 4 CD30+ HL adult patients, is based on the results of the randomized Phase III ECHELON-1 trial (N=1,334 patients in the intention to-treat population) that evaluated the use of brentuximab vedotin plus AVD, compared to ABVD multiagent chemotherapy in adult patients with untreated stage 3 or 4 Hodgkin lymphoma.