NICE recommends Imfinzi for patients with locally advanced unresectable NSCLC

The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence ( NICE) has recommended, Imfinzi (durvalumab) from AstraZeneca in a small subgroup of NSCLC patients – around 165 individuals in the first year . NICE considered that durvalumab was a “potentially curative treatment” but its clinical trial data upon which the appraisal was based, the PACIFIC study, were still immature. NICE’s draft final guidance, issued on 28 March 2019,came with a qualification that Imfinzi treatment should be reimbursed by the government-backed Cancer Drugs Fund, and not by the NHS itself.

Imfinzi was approved for unresectable Stage III (locally advanced) NSCLC in by the European Commission in October 2018, and in the US in February 2018.

NICE recommends durvalumab as a monotherapy in patients with locally advanced unresectable NSCLC in adults whose tumors express PD-L1 on at least 1% of tumor cells, and whose disease has not progressed after concurrent platinum-based chemoradiation.

AstraZeneca is to make durvalumab available at an undisclosed discount to the NHS list price.