National Institute for Clinical Excellence (NICE) Questions Merck & Co., Inc., Nycomed COPD Drug

More research is needed to assess the effectiveness of Daxas, a new lung drug developed by Nycomed and marketed in Europe by U.D. group Merck & Co, Britain's health cost watchdog said on Friday. The National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence said there was "great uncertainty" about how well it worked as a add-on to other treatments for COPD, or smoker's lung, and it was not able to establish whether the drug was worth using on the state health service. Draft guidance from the watchdog recommended setting up a further clinical trial to assess the pill, also known as roflumilast, as an add-on to triple or dual therapy for people with bad chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).