NICE draft guidance restricts use of Daklinza for hepatitis C

Much to the disappointment of US pharma major Bristol-Myers Squibb (NYSE: BMY), the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE), the medicines cost:benefit watchdog for England and Wales, has issued draft guidance restricting the use of the firm’s Daklinza (daclatasvir) for the treatment of adult patients with chronic hepatitis C infection.

Published data show that daclatasvir-based regimen can offer a cure of hepatitis C infection in patients with a difficult-to-treat and often aggressive form of hepatitis C (genotype 3). Based on the most recent data, The European Association for The Study of the Liver (EASL) recommended daclatasvir-based regimen for genotype 3 patients in April 2015, according to B-MS.

Around 215,000 people in the UK are thought to have hepatitis C. The draft NICE guidance will not allow access to patients with hepatitis C genotype 3, which accounts for around 45% of all cases in England.Hepatitis C genotype 3 is associated with faster disease progression (liver damage) and is more difficult to treat with oral regimens than other genotypes.