NICE final guidance backs Pfizer's Lorviqua

The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) has published guidance recommending the use of Pfizer's Lorviqua (lorlatinib) for a certain form of lung cancer on the NHS.

The drug has been recommended, within its marketing authorisation, as an option for treating anaplastic lymphoma kinase (ALK)-positive advanced non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) in adults whose disease has progressed after: alectinib or ceritinib as the first ALK tyrosine kinase inhibitor; or crizotinib and at least one other ALK tyrosine kinase inhibitor.

Lorviqua, which is also an ALK tyrosine kinase inhibitor, has not been compared directly with other drugs. But according to NICE, analyses indirectly comparing the drug with platinum doublet chemotherapy (PDC) and atezolizumab with bevacizumab, carboplatin and paclitaxel (ABCP) suggest that people who take Lorviqua experience benefits in disease progression and survival.

Moreover, the drug meets NICE's criteria to be considered a life-extending treatment at the end of life and, while cost-effectiveness remains uncertain, the most likely estimates are within what the Institute normally considers an acceptable use of NHS resources, it said.