AstraZeneca: NICE decision ends breast cancer postcode lottery

AstraZeneca has proclaimed NICE’s decision to issue a positive final appraisal determination for three aromatase inhibitors (AIs), including AstraZeneca’s Arimidex (anastrozole).

The UK’s second largest pharmaceutical company said the approval means free access to new aromatase inhibitors will be available to 23,000 newly diagnosed postmenopausal women with hormone receptor-positive early breast cancer every year.

NICE’s recommendation comes following the submission of seven clinical trials involving AIs, of which four included the use of Arimidex. One of the trials presented to NICE was ATAC, the largest independent breast cancer trial in the world, which compared the effectiveness of Arimidex to tamoxifen, the current “gold standard” treatment once invented by AstraZeneca’s forbearers.

Professor Jeffrey Tobias, professor of cancer medicine at University College London, commented: “We have been waiting for NICE’s guidance for nearly two years, and this milestone brings us close to ending the postcode lottery for AIs, such as anastrozole, which has been shown to significantly improve women?s chances of surviving early breast cancer over and above the benefit seen with tamoxifen.”

“In my view, anastrozole – which is the least expensive of these therapies – provides good value for the NHS,” he added.

The other drugs approved by NICE for early breast cancer, post-surgery, include Novartis’ Femara and Aromasin, the Pfizer drug.

Arimidex is currently the “first and only” AI approved in the UK as both a primary adjuvant therapy and for an unplanned switch of treatment.

The drug is AstraZeneca’s best-selling cancer therapy, bringing in revenues of $714 million (378 million pounds) during the second quarter of 2006.

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