NICE fails to recommend nivolumab for lung cancer

A ‘promising’ new treatment for lung cancer cannot be recommended for use in the NHS because it is not cost effective, the UK's National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) has said.

Nivolumab, marketed as Opdivo by Bristol-Myers Squibb (NYSE: BMY), has been hailed a cutting-edge cancer drug that has helped tumours vanish.

But the NICE has said the evidence provided by the company, together with its cost to the NHS – about £100,000 (~$150,000) per year per patient – has not allowed it to recommend nivolumab for routine use, over the current standard treatment docetaxel, which was first approved for use 17 years ago.