NICE approves Bayer’s liver cancer drug

NICE has given Bayer’s advanced liver cancer therapy Stivarga (regorafenib) the go-ahead after it undertook a rapid review following earlier guidance that rejected the drug. The medicine is for adults in England and Wales whose liver is well functioning but unable to be surgically removed and who have already taken Bayer’s life-extending medicine Nexavar (sorafenib). In March this year, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) found that regorafenib was less cost-effective than treatments it usually considers are an acceptable use of resources for end-of-life care.
But it reversed its decision after a new commercial arrangement made regorafenib available to the NHS at a confidential, lower price. Regorafenib is an oral multi-kinase inhibitor that blocks multiple protein kinases involved in tumor angiogenesis. It slows down the growth and spread of cancer cells by cutting off their blood supply.