UK's NICE rejects Novartis' Xolair for children suffering severe persistent allergic asthma, on cost grounds

The UK's National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) has decided against recommending the use of Swiss drug major Novartis' Xolair (omalizumab) for children aged six to 11 years with severe, persistent allergic asthma in the National Health Service in England and Wales because it does not consider it to be a cost-effective use of NHS resources.

Omalizumab is the first in a generation of drugs for severe, difficult-to-control allergic asthma, where patients have an oversensitive immune system, and is already recommended by the NICE for use in patients aged 12 years and older, the drugmaker points out. Last month the Scottish Medicines Consortium (SMC) accepted the use of omalizumab for children in Scotland aged six to 11 with severe, persistent allergic asthma who are prescribed chronic systemic steroids, it added.

41% of UK hospital admissions for asthma are children under 14 years