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24 December 2010

NICE backs renal cancer drug Votrient after GSK agrees discount, rebate scheme

The National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence provisionally recommended funding GlaxoSmithKline's Votrient (pazopanib) on the NHS as a first-line treatment for patients with advanced renal cell carcinoma after the company agreed to lower the drug's price and offer a rebate scheme. Carole Longson, director of the agency’s Health Technology Evaluation Centre, noted that the rebate scheme made the agent a cost-effective proposition, and the therapy "will offer patients an additional option, and, for some, a more favourable side effect profile."


Under a patient access scheme, GlaxoSmithKline will supply Votrient to the NHS at a discount of 12.5 percent, bringing its price in line with that of the standard treatment, Pfizer's Sutent (sunitinib). The company also agreed to an undisclosed financial rebate if results of an ongoing clinical trial show that Votrient is inferior to Sutent. "If we fail to confirm that they are comparable in efficacy - which we do not expect - then we provide a rebate back to the NHS as a result," remarked Simon Jose, the company's UK general manager.


Jose noted that results from the study are expected by the middle of 2012. "You don’t always have the evidence you need at the time you need it, especially in oncology," Jose commented, adding that the agreement will help achieve a "balance between fast and equitable access for patients, value for money for the NHS and fair return for innovation for GSK."


The once-daily drug has been recommended in draft guidance from NICE as a first-line treatment option for patients with advanced renal cell carcinoma who haven’t received cytokine therapy and who are relatively healthy given the status of their disease. The agency expects to issue final guidance on Votrient, which was granted conditional approval in Europe earlier in the year for advanced renal cell carcinoma, in February 2011.


Jose indicated that the idea of linking prices to longer-term scientific evidence could be a model for future negotiations between government and industry. "We are moving in the direction where price is driven by value and value is driven by evidence, and therefore we can start to construct different sorts of arrangements where we can balance this off," he added. Such schemes could become more commonplace when the UK introduces its planned system of value-based pricing for new drugs in 2013.

**Published in "FW Pharma"

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