Two life-extending drugs now available to NHS breast cancer patients

Two life-extending drugs will now be available to breast cancer patients on the NHS after price negotiations lead the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) to approve them.

Palbociclib (Ibrance, Pfizer) and ribociclib (Kisqali, Novartis) have been recommended for patients with hormone receptor (HR) positive, HER2 negative locally advanced or secondary breast cancer. NICE recommended routine funding for these therapies after both companies lowered the prices and provided extra evidence of treatment effectiveness.

According to a statement from NICE, there are currently around 45,000 new diagnoses of breast cancer each year in England and with these new recommendations it is estimated that about 8,000 of these patients will be eligible for treatment.

Both palbociclib and ribociclib are administered as a pill, once-a-day, alongside an aromatase inhibitor — a drug which blocks the production of oestrogen. Although the extent to which these therapies may be able to extend a patient’s life is uncertain, clinical trials have demonstrated that they stall the growth of cancer for an extra 10 months on average.

“The committee heard that by postponing disease progression, palbociclib and ribociclib may reduce the number of people who are exposed to the often unpleasant side effects of chemotherapy, and delay the need for its use in others,” stated Professor Carole Longson director of the centre for health technology evaluation at NICE. “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.”

The original list price for one cycle for the therapies is £2,950. The agreed upon reduction in this cost remains confidential.