NICE does not recommend Pfizer's Xalkori

News

The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) today announced final draft guidance on Pfizer's Xalkori (crizotinib) and has not recommended it for use in previously-treated anaplastic-lymphoma-kinase-positive advanced non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC).

The tyrosine kinase inhibitor was deemed not to be a "cost-effective use of NHS resources."

Compared with docetaxel, a clinically well-established chemotherapy, Xalkori resulted in a median gain of 5.1 months in progression-free survival, however according to NICE, "the exact magnitude of the overall survival gain was uncertain because of the immaturity of the 1007 trial data and the impact of crossover in the trial."

The decision that the treatment was not cost effective came despite Pfizer lowing the cost of the drug.

"Today's decision is another example of NICE declining a medicine which we strongly believe is a clinically and cost effective treatment. If this trend of negative decisions continues, we could see the U.K. fall even further behind other European countries for cancer survival rates"

Dr. David Montgomery, the medical director at Pfizer Oncology UK