NICE recommends NHS use of Ninlaro for multiple myeloma patients

Medicines cost-effectiveness watchdog the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) has published a Final Appraisal Determination (FAD) recommending Japanese drug major Takeda Pharmaceutical (TYO: 4502) Ninlaro (ixazomib) in combination with lenalidomide and dexamethasone (Rd) for the treatment of multiple myeloma patients who have received two or three prior lines of therapy.

Back in September, the NICE declined to back National Health Service use of Ninlaro, saying that data to prove that this combination involving Ninlaro prolongs overall survival in relapsed or refractory (R/R) multiple myeloma (MM) compared with the current treatment was missing.

This landmark decision will mean that multiple myeloma patients in England will finally have access to a novel medicine prescribed alongside the two-drug current standard of care (Rd). A number of trials have shown that patients treated with a novel three-drug combination may live longer without their disease worsening, when compared to two-drug combinations.2 Over the past 20 months several novel triplet regimens (combined with Rd) have been approved by the European Medicines Agency and these are rapidly becoming the new standard of care in Europe and the USA. However, IRd is the first novel Rd-based triplet to have access in the UK via the CDF.