UK's NICE finally rejects Bayer and patient appeals to approve Nexavar; last hope is new Con-Lib coalition pledge

Despite strong appeals by German drug major Bayer, as well as various cancer patient groups, the UK's National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) has decided, not to recommend the use of Nexavar (sorafenib) on the National Health for UK liver cancer patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), the most common form of primary liver cancer (The Pharma Letters passim).

Terminally ill patients must now wait in further uncertainty for the UK's new Conservative/Liberal Democrat coalition government to make good on its election promises, warns Bayer, though there have been indications that its pledges on making expensive oncology agents available via a special cancer drug fund will be fulfilled (TPL May 24).

Cost still the deciding factor