Janssen-Cilag’s Incivo recommended by NICE

Janssen-Cilag's hepatitis C therapy Incivo (telaprevir) has won a recommendation in final draft guidance published by the UK's National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE).

The regulatory body has provisionally endorsed the drug in combination with peginterferon alfa and ribavirin for the treatment of genotype 1 chronic hepatitis C in adults with compensated liver disease.

Clinical trials have shown that this Incivo-based regimen can offer improvements in sustained virological response rates compared to peginterferon alfa and ribavirin alone, as well as shortening the overall length of treatment.

NICE notes that this would offer benefits to patients currently affected by lengthy therapy regimens, while it would also help to reduce the risk of infections spreading.

Meindert Boysen, programme director for technology appraisals at NICE, said: "We are pleased to be able to recommend teleprevir as a cost-effective use of NHS resources, alongside boceprevir, for which positive draft guidance was published last week."

Boceprevir is manufactured by Merck Sharpe and Dohme and has also been recommended for use in combination with peginterferon alfa and ribavirin.