NICE Recommends Merck Serono’s NSCLC Drug Tepmetko
The UK’s National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) has recommended Merck Serono’s Tepmetko (tepotinib) for National Health Service (NHS) use in the treatment of certain adult patients with advanced nonsmall-cell lung cancer (NSCLC).
Previously, the NHS could not provide targeted treatments for patients with the specific form of NSCLC with METex14 skipping-gene alterations. Instead, patients with the genetic biomarker were given the same treatment as other NSCLC patients.
NICE based its recommendation on clinical and real-world data indicating that Tepmetko might prolong life in patients with METex14 skipping NSCLC.
The list price of Tepmetko in the UK is over $3,500 for 60 tablets containing 250 mg each. The recommended dosage is two 225 mg tablets once daily until disease progression or unacceptable toxicity. The discounted price for NHS coverage was not disclosed.
April 18, 2022
