NICE backs use of Roche's Gazyvaro with bendustamine

Patients with follicular lymphoma will now get NHS-funded treatment with Roche's Gazyvaro (binutuzumab)/bendamustine in England and Wales after cost regulators published guidelines backing its use in this setting.

The condition is the most common type of non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma for which there is no cure, leaving patients with an often poor prognosis and limited treatment options.

Gazyvaro/bendamustine will be available to patients whose disease has not responded to rituximab or has responded but subsequently relapsed.

The treatment, which could benefit 500 people, was until now only available through the Cancer Drugs Fund (CDF).

According to NICE, evidence from the CDF is limited but it 'appears to support the clinical trial evidence', which shows that when follicular lymphoma has not responded well enough to rituximab, the combination improves how long people have before their disease progresses and how long they live compared with bendamustine alone.

Cost-effectiveness estimates for obinutuzumab with bendamustine are in the range usually considered a cost-effective use of NHS resources.

14th May 2020

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