NICE Recommends AstraZeneca’s Imfinzi for NSCLC
The UK’s National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) is recommending AstraZeneca’s Imfinzi (durvalumab) for National Health Service (NHS) use in treating patients with locally advanced unresectable nonsmall-cell lung cancer (NSCLC).
NICE said it reviewed data spanning five years and concluded the drug improved overall survival and progression-free survival compared with standard care. The institute is recommending Imfinzi, which is a programmed death-ligand 1 (PD-L1) treatment, for routine use.
Imfinzi costs more than $3,000 per 500 mg vial in the UK. The recommended dose is a fixed dose of 1,500 mg every four weeks until disease progression, unacceptable toxicity or for up to 12 months. The discounted price for NHS coverage was not disclosed.
NICE said the recommendation can benefit more than 400 people in England.
Durvalumab (trade name Imfinzi) is an FDA-approved immunotherapy for cancer, developed by Medimmune/AstraZeneca. It is a human immunoglobulin G1 kappa (IgG1κ) monoclonal antibody that blocks the interaction of programmed cell death ligand 1 (PD-L1) with the PD-1 (CD279). Durvalumab is known as a checkpoint inhibitor drug.
May 17, 2022
