NICE dogs Roche's Perjeta again, this time in postsurgery breast cancer patients

Earlier this month, European regulators approved Roche’s Perjeta for some postsurgery patients with early breast cancer. But England’s cost watchdogs are blocking its path.Friday, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence released draft guidance recommending against NHS use of Perjeta, in combination with fellow Roche cancer-fighter Herception and chemo, in HER2-positive early breast cancer patients who face a high risk of their cancer returning after surgery.The reasons? For one, an evaluation committee concluded that adding Perjeta to the Herceptin-chemo regimen “made only a small difference in the proportion of people who remained free of invasive disease,” NICE said in a statement, adding it doesn’t yet have evidence that Perjeta increases overall survival. NICE isn’t the only group not to find Roche’s Perjata postsurgery data somewhat underwhelming. When details dropped at last year’s American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) meeting and later when the combo picked up FDA approval—industry watchers and analysts labeled the performance “weak.”