NICE draft guidance recommends Boehringer Ingelheim’s Giotrif

UK drugs watchdog the National Institute for Health and care Excellence (NICE) this morning issued new draft guidance recommending German family-owned drug major Boehringer Ingelheim’s Giotrif (afatinib) as an option for treating locally-advanced or metastatic non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) in people whose tumors test positive for the EGFR-TK mutation and have not received a EGFR-TK inhibitor.

Commenting on the draft guidance, Sir Andrew Dillon, chief executive of the NICE, said: “We’ve already recommended two drugs, gefitinib and erlotinib, as options for the first-line treatment for patients with this form of lung cancer and we’re pleased that this draft guidance recommends a further option. As the independent Committee is recommending the treatment in line with its marketing authorization, they decided that an appraisal consultation document was not needed for this appraisal. In accordance with our usual process, the recommendations can therefore go straight to a final draft in order to speed up access to this treatment. The draft guidance is now with consultees, who have the opportunity to appeal against it.”

The NICE Appraisal Committee concluded that afatinib is likely to be clinically and cost effective as a second-line treatment for the minority of patients who have received chemotherapy as first-line treatment.