More options for UK blood cancer patients as NICE recommends three drugs

4 May 2018

The UK medicines cost effectiveness watchdog the National Institute of Health and Care Excellence (NICE) has recommended three blood cancer drugs, brentuximab vedotin, midostaurin and arsenic trioxide be made available on the National Health Service (NHS), it was announced today.

Two of the drugs, midostaurin, marketed by Swiss pharma giant Novartis (NOVN: VX) as Rydapt, and arsenic trioxide or Trisenox from Israel’s Teva Pharmaceutical Industries (NYSE: TEVA), are recommended for adults with certain types of leukemia.

Midostaurin is a first of its kind drug that targets a protein called tyrosine kinase FLT3. Tyrosine kinase FLT3 is often damaged in people with acute myeloid leukemia. Around 160 adults a year in England and Wales, who test positive for the mutated FLT3 gene, will be eligible for this pill.

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