Bristol-Myers Squibb receives NICE recommendation for Daklinza

Bristol-Myers Squibb has announced that its hepatitis C therapy Daklinza has been recommended by the UK's National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE).

The drug has now been endorsed for NHS use in England and Wales for the treatment of adult patients with chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection, specifically genotypes 1, 3 and 4.

Daklinza plus sofosbuvir, with or without ribavirin, is currently one of only two all-oral treatment regimens recommended by the European Association for the Study of the Liver's treatment guidelines for patients with HCV genotype 3.

Approximately 214,000 people in the UK are thought to have chronic HCV, with around 100,000 of these affected by genotype 3, a difficult-to-treat and often aggressive form of chronic HCV.

Dr Douglas Manion, head of specialty development at Bristol-Myers Squibb, said: "England has now joined Italy, France, The Netherlands, Sweden, Belgium, Switzerland, Denmark, Scotland and Ireland in recognising the value of Daklinza for the treatment of genotype 3 HCV."

This comes after Eliquis, the novel anticoagulant developed by Bristol-Myers Squibb and Pfizer, was recommended by NICE earlier this year.