NICE turns down kidney cancer drugs

It is looking unlikely that patients in England and Wales with advanced renal cell carcinoma will be getting routine NHS access to Eisai’s Kisplyx or Eusa Pharma’s Fotivda, after cost regulators issued draft guidelines turning down their use. The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence said it is not recommending NHS funding for Kisplyx (lenvatinib) in combination with everolimus for previously treated patients because of uncertainties in the clinical evidence. While trial data suggest that the combination boosts the length of time people live by 10.1 months versus everolimus alone, results were unreliable because the main trial included just a small number of patients, it noted.