Boehringer Ingelheim’s Actilyse receives NICE recommendation

Boehringer Ingelheim has been granted a recommendation from the UK's National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence for its stroke drug Actilyse.

The regulator has issued draft guidance recommending the therapy for acute ischaemic stroke within the NHS, as long as treatment is started within 4.5 hours after onset of stroke symptoms, and after intracranial haemorrhage has been excluded by appropriate imaging techniques.

This update was prompted by a recent change in Actilyse's labelling to allow it to be used within 4.5 hours, rather than the previous limit of three hours.

It has been proven in clinical trials that the drug is able to protect against long-term disability caused by stroke.

Professor Carole Longson, NICE's Health Technology Evaluation Centre director, said: "We know that strokes are one of the biggest killers … therefore it is important that patients receive treatments that can help to reduce the effects of a stroke as quickly as possible."

Earlier this month, the company announced a new manufacturing deal with Servier and Xoma, pertaining to the creation of an interleukin 1-beta allosteric modulating antibody called gevokizumab.