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U.K.
December 11, 2015
AstraZeneca ($AZN) scored a victory for its ovarian cancer drug Lynparza, as U.K. cost watchdog the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) did an about-face and recommended the med for some patients as long as the company offers a discount.
The notoriously tough cost gatekeeper gave a thumbs-up to Lynparza in final draft guidance but attached a few conditions to its approval. Patients taking the med must have BRCA1 or BRCA2 mutations and have already had three or more rounds of platinum-based chemo. The agency is also requiring that AstraZeneca pay for treatment if patients remain on the drug longer than 15 months, the PharmaTimes reports.
NICE rejected Lynparza over the summer after finding that its £4,200-a-month price didn't justify its benefits, sparking backlash from the company and physicians who wanted patients to have access to the innovative drug. Lynparza is part of a new class of treatments, poly ADP-ribose polymerase (PARP) inhibitors, which target cancer cells while leaving patients' normal cells untouched.
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