IQWiG view on Roche’s Zelboraf unchanged despite new data

The German Institute for Quality and Efficiency in Health Care (IQWiG) has reassessed Swiss drug major Roche’s (ROG: SIX) Zelboraf (vemurafenib), in the treatment of adults with a certain type of advanced melanoma, and has concluded that, despite this dossier containing additional and more recent data, it did not provide any new findings. The IQWiG therefore still considers there to be an indication of a considerable added benefit of vemurafenib.

The drug approved since February 2012 can be an option for adults whose melanoma cannot be removed by surgery or has formed secondaries (metastases) and in whose cancer a change (mutation) has occurred in a certain gene (BRAF-V600). The Federal Joint Committee (G-BA) had specified the drug dacarbazine as the appropriate comparator therapy.

Longer survival, but also major side effects