Pfizer’s Ibrance approved for breast cancer in new NICE guidance

Pfizer's breast cancer drug Ibrance has been recommended for routine NHS use in new draft guidance from the National Institute For Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE).

The palbociclib therapy has been recommended as a treatment for people with hormone receptor-positive, HER2-negative locally advanced or secondary breast cancer, when administered once daily alongside an aromatase inhibitor.

Evidence suggests that the drug can stall the growth of cancer for an extra ten months on average, while also reducing the need for chemotherapy.

Previously, the regulator harboured concerns about the clinical benefits of Ibrance, as well as querying its price, but Pfizer has been able to provide more evidence of its effectiveness, while also lowering the cost.

NICE announced the provisional approval of Ibrance at the same time as it confirmed a similar decision on the Novartis cancer drug Kisqali, also known as ribociclib, under similar terms.

Professor Carole Longson, director of the centre for health technology evaluation at NICE, said: "We are pleased therefore that the companies have been able to agree reductions to the price of palbociclib and ribociclib to allow them to be made routinely available to people with this type of breast cancer."

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