Roche receives NICE backing for MabThera

Roche has been granted a recommendation from the UK’s National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) for its chronic lymphocytic leukaemia (CLL) treatment MabThera.

The drug was backed as a therapy for those with people with relapsed and difficult-to-treat CLL based on data from Reach, a recent clinical trial of the drug which proved its efficacy.

During the study, a combination of MabThera and fludarabine and cyclophosphamide (FC) chemotherapy was shown to provide better treatment responses than FC alone.

NICE has also committed to a further review of it guidance on the Roche drug in December 2010 in order to assess its merits in combination with other suitable chemotherapy regimes.

Dr Claire Dearden, consultant haematologist at Royal Marsden Hospital, said: “NICE’s decision to widen its recommendation to include relapsed and refractory CLL patients is very encouraging and will mean that many more people will now be able to benefit from this potent treatment combination.”

Roche published its financial report for the second quarter of 2010 earlier this month, which highlighted the strength of its business and the encouraging sales performance of treatments such as Lucentis.