Bayer's Xofigo Gains NICE Approval

It is looking likely that patients with prostate cancer will, in certain circumstances, get ‘routine’ access to treatment with Bayer’s Xofigo (radium 223) on the National Health Service in England and Wales.

The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence has published draft guideline’s endorsing the drug as an option to treat adults with hormone-relapsed prostate cancer, symptomatic bone metastases and no known visceral metastases.

But this only extends to patients who have already been treated with docetaxel, and the recommendation is contingent upon on Bayer providing the drug with a confidential discount agreed in a patient access scheme.

Xofigo is a radio-pharmaceutical agent designed to directly deliver alpha radiation to bone metastases without affecting normal bone marrow. Bayer estimates the average cost for a six-month course with the drug (administered intravenously every four weeks) to be around £24,240.

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