UK's NICE rejects use of Roche's Kadcyla for breast cancer on NHS

UK drugs watchdog the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) has today issued preliminary guidance rejecting Swiss drug major Roche’s (ROG: SIX) Kadcyla (ado-trastuzumab emtansine or T-DM1), for women with advanced HER2-positive breast cancer who have previously received Roche’s Herceptin (trastuzumab) and a taxane chemotherapy, separately or in combination.

Draft guidance published for consultation says that, despite some evidence of clinical efficacy, trastuzumab emtansine does not work well enough to justify its high cost and it therefore should not be recommended for routine National Health Service (NHS) use. The NICE says that a breast cancer treatment that can cost more than £90,000 ($151,280) per patient is not effective enough to justify the price the NHS is being asked to pay.

NICE chief executive Sir Andrew Dillon said: “We had hoped that Roche would have recognized the challenge the NHS faces in managing the adoption of expensive new treatments by reducing the cost of Kadcyla to the NHS. This drug is already being funded through the special Cancer Drugs Fund. Our job is to recommend whether it should transfer into the NHS budget. We are very aware of the importance that people place on life-extending cancer drugs and a decision not to recommend a cancer treatment for routine NHS funding is never taken lightly. We apply as much flexibility as we can in approving new treatments, but the reality is that given its price and what it offers to patients, it will displace more health benefit which the NHS could achieve in other ways, than it will offer to patients with breast cancer.”