National Institute for Clinical Excellence (NICE) Backs Novartis AG's Tasigna for CML, Rejects Bristol-Myers Squibb Company's Sprycel

The U.K.'s health-cost regulator Friday backed Novartis AG's (NOVN.VX) cancer drug Tasigna for first-line treatment of chronic myeloid leukemia after the Swiss drug maker offered a discount, but Bristol-Myers Squibb Co.'s (BMY) rival product Sprycel was rejected. The decision from the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellent, or NICE, confirmed a draft guidance published in December. NICE, which decides which treatments should be used in the U.K.'s publicly funded National Health Service, also said Novartis's older oncology medicine Glivec isn't being recommended for CML that is resistant to standard-dose Glivec, also known as imatinib. Tasigna's generic name is nilotinib.

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