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Home Industry News Merck Sharp and Dohme’s Keytruda earns NICE recommendation for lung cancer

Merck Sharp and Dohme’s Keytruda earns NICE recommendation for lung cancer

6th December 2016

Merck Sharp and Dohme's cancer therapy Keytruda has been recommended for use in the treatment of lung cancer in new guidance from the UK's National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE).

Draft guidelines from the regulator have endorsed the drug as a means of treating adults with advanced lung cancer that test positive for PD-L1, a specific protein on the surface of cells that is involved in the immune response to cancer.

It was agreed that the drug should be stopped at two years if a person's disease has not worsened. Administered every three weeks, it is to be used if people have already been treated with at least one other chemotherapy.

Earlier this year, NICE declined to recommend Keytruda for routine NHS use, due to concerns about its long-term benefits. In response, Merck Sharp and Dohme has shared further clinical data to support the drug, while offering an additional discount.

New data on the effectiveness of Keytruda is expected soon, and NICE will review its guidance when this becomes available.

Professor Carole Longson, director of the NICE centre for health technology evaluation, said: "If companies work with us to price drugs reasonably and manage any uncertainties in the evidence base, we can continue to recommend patients have routine access to the treatments they need."

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