Merck’s Erbitux approved for NHS Wales
pharmafile | January 5, 2016 | News story | Manufacturing and Production, Sales and Marketing | Erbitux, Merck, cetuximab, colorectal cancer, metastatic colorectal cancer
The All Wales Medicines Strategy Group has recommended Merck’s Erbitux in combination with chemotherapy for restricted use in the NHS in Wales.
Erbitux (cetuximab) is recommended for the first-line treatment of patients with RAS wild-type metastatic colorectal cancer. Its full indication is with epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR)-expressing, RAS wild-type metastatic colorectal cancer in combination with irinotecan-based chemotherapy or in combination with Folfox (oxaliplatin with fluorouracil and folinic acid) chemotherapy. This recommendation applies only in circumstances where an approved Wales Patient Access Scheme is utilised.
The treatment will be available to those patients whose tumours have been shown to be ‘RAS wild-type’ – RAS is a genetic biomarker and approximately 50% of all metastatic colorectal cancer (CRC) tumours are RAS wild-type. Merck says this kind of genetic testing will make treatment more targeted, “which helps the health service optimise its resources.”
Erbitux is licensed in the first-line setting for use in combination with irinotecan-based or FOLFOX chemotherapy in metastatic colorectal cancer patients whose tumours have the RAS wild-type biomarker. Colorectal cancer is one of the most common types of cancer in Wales, with 2,272 cases in 2013, accounting for 12% of all cancer cases.
Keir Woods, the business unit head of oncology, Merck UK and Ireland, says: “We are delighted with this recommendation. It has always been our goal to bring patients in Wales in line with patients in England and Scotland who currently have access to this medicine in this setting.”
The drug is not in England through the Cancer Drugs Fund, and Woods called for the drug’s long-term future funding to be secured beyond the end of the Fund, scheduled for March 2016.
“We remain concerned that future access to cetuximab for RAS wild-type mCRC patients in England is uncertain given that the Cancer Drugs Fund (CDF) is under review and an ongoing NICE appraisal has made a preliminary recommendation against access. We are committed to working with the NHS to ensure that RAS wild-type mCRC patients in England continue to have the same access to cetuximab as those in Scotland and Wales.”
Lilian Anekwe
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