Pfizer’s leukaemia drug Bosulif receives NICE recommendation

Pfizer has received a recommendation from the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) for its cancer drug Bosulif.

The UK health regulator has endorsed the drug for NHS use among chronic myeloid leukaemia patients for whom existing treatments no longer work, or cause severe side effects. Around 80 new patients in England and Wales will be eligible for this treatment each year.

This is the first drug to be reexamined and approved since NICE took over the running of the Cancer Drugs Fund, which was previously the only channel through which UK patients could access Bosulif.

Pfizer's therapy was previously considered to be too expensive for routine NHS use, but the manufacturer has now agreed to provide the product at a discount, thus helping to secure a NICE recommendation.

Professor Carole Longson, director of the Centre for Health Technology Evaluation at NICE, said: "The company positively engaged with our Cancer Drugs Fund reconsideration process and demonstrated that their drug can be cost-effective, which resulted in a positive recommendation."

This comes after Pfizer strengthened its inflammation and immunology portfolio last week with the completion of its takeover of Anacor Pharmaceuticals.