NICE draft guidance rejects Eli Lilly's Alimta for NSCLC maintenance

UK drugs watchdog the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) has issued new draft guidance not recommending US pharma major Eli Lilly’s Alimta (pemetrexed) for the maintenance treatment of non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) following induction therapy with pemetrexed and cisplatin.

The NICE has already recommended pemetrexed as a first line treatment option for NSCLC and as a maintenance treatment option following platinum-based chemotherapy in combination with gemcitabine, paclitaxel or docetaxel. This appraisal is concerned with the extension to the marketing authorisation for pemetrexed as a maintenance treatment following pemetrexed and cisplatin.

Commenting on the draft guidance, Sir Andrew Dillon, chief executive of the NICE, said: “Pemetrexed is already recommended as maintenance treatment following a different first line treatment However, in this case, as maintenance treatment following pemetrexed and cisplatin, although effective, the potential gain for patients are less but the cost to the NHS remains the same. It is disappointing not to be able to recommend pemetrexed in our preliminary guidance, but we can only recommend treatments which are both clinically and cost effective.”