IQWiG finds no added benefit for Xalkori

In an early benefit assessment the German Institute for Quality and Efficiency in Health Care (IQWiG) investigated whether crizotinib offers advantages for patients over the appropriate comparator therapies.

The drug from US pharma giant Pfizer (NYSE: PFE), marketed as Xalkori, has been approved in Europe since August 2016 for adults with advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) in whom the structure of the enzyme “proto-oncogene tyrosine-protein kinase” (ROS1) is altered in the tumor tissue.

According to the findings, such an added benefit is not proven: for one patient group, the dossier does not contain any data at all; for two further groups, the data are unsuitable for assessment.