Added benefit of Vargatef depends on disease severity, says IQWiG

The German Institute for Quality and Efficiency in Health Care (IQWiG) has examined in a dossier assessment whether nintedanib (trade name Vargatef, from German family-owned pharma major Boehringer Ingelheim) offers an added benefit over the appropriate comparator therapy for the treatment of adults with advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) of the glandular tissue (adenocarcinoma) who have already received chemotherapy.

According to the findings, there is an indication of a minor added benefit of nintedanib in combination with docetaxel in patients without brain metastases. However, in patients with brain metastases, the new drug has more disadvantages than chemotherapy with docetaxel alone. This results in a hint of a lesser benefit of nintedanib with the extent “considerable,” the IQWiG stated.

Findings from the only study are biased: at most indications can be derived