May 5, 2017
By Alex Keown, BioSpace.com Breaking News Staff
LONDON – Breast cancer patients in the U.K. will be able to receive a touted Pfizer breast cancer drug for free while the company awaits a decision from the National Health Service, the U.K.’s healthcare system.
The company’s decision to provide the treatment for free follows a provisional rejection for palbociclib (Ibrance) for routine use by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE). NICE has asked for additional clinical data before making a final ruling. In its objection, NICE said the cost of Palbociclib was too high and it said clinical trial data was unclear about overall survival, The Telegraph reported earlier this year.
In the U.K. Palbociclib is licensed for women with breast cancer which is HER2 negative, estrogen positive and has spread around the body. The NICE review looked at patients who had not been given any other treatment for advanced or metastatic cancer, according to reports.
In the meantime, Pfizer said it will provide the drug free of charge, The Guardian reported this morning. Clinical data has shown that palbociclib in combination with another drug can delay the growth of breast cancer for about 10 months, according to a Pfizer presentation at the American Society of Clinical Oncologists (ASCO) last year. Approximately 6,000 breast cancer patients in the U.K. will be eligible to receive palbociclib, The Independent reported. Oncologists in the U.K. have called palbociclib “one of the most important advances” in breast cancer research in the past 20 years, The Guardian said.
In an interview with multiple news outlets in the U.K., Fiona Hazell, director of policy and engagement at Breast Cancer Now, hailed the drug and estimated that 16 patients each day could have their lives altered.
“While only an interim measure, more than 16 women every day could have their lives changed by this drug during this window. Palbociclib can offer a large proportion of patients with incurable metastatic breast cancer significant extra time before their disease progresses—time that can be truly invaluable to them and their loved ones,” Hazell said, according to The Guardian.
Pfizer has said that even if NICE ultimately rejects palbociclib, the patients who will receive the drug during this free period will continue the treatment for the full duration, according to The Guardian.
“Pfizer believes women with metastatic breast cancer deserve access as soon as possible to this innovative medicine that has been shown to significantly increase progression-free survival,” a Pfizer spokesperson said in a statement to U.K. media.
Ibrance is a first-in-class cyclin dependent kinase 4/6 (CDK 4/6) inhibitor. It is Pfizer’s fastest growing revenue generator. In 2016, Ibrance generated $2.1 billion in sales, which was a massive jump from $723 million the drug brought in in 2015. Ibrance was granted accelerated approval in combination with letrozole in February 2015 and regular approval in February 2016 for a second indication: the treatment of HR+, HER2- advanced or metastatic breast cancer in combination with fulvestrant in women with disease progression following endocrine therapy.
