LONDON - The National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (Nice) has decided to reject the drug Erbitux (cetuximab) for people suffering from head and neck cancers in the UK.
Consequently the drug is unavailable on the NHS because it feels Erbitux does not offer cheaper or even better treatment than comparable drugs available on the market.
Erbitux was also not considered for bowel cancer patients when campaigners applied to Nice in January this year. Charities feel the decision by Nice not to allot it to head and neck cancer patients is a huge blow to them.
As regards the latest decision, Nice said there was no evidence Erbitux offered any advantages over the existing drugs.
"Sometimes it is possible for the committee to identify a subgroup of patients in whom a drug would be effective, for example patients for whom other treatments are not suitable," said Andrew Dillon, Nice chief executive. “The NHS has finite resources and it is our job to ensure that these are spent on treatments that confer enough of a benefit to patients in relation to the amount of money they cost."
Studies have shown that Erbitux when combined with radiotherapy increases the survival rates for head and neck cancer from 29 months to 49 months, but these studies apparently failed to convince Nice.
