IQWiG: Xiapex offers 'no additional benefit' over comparators

The German institute for Quality and Efficiency in health Care (IQWiG) said Dupuytren's contracture drug Xiapex collagenase clostridium histolyticum from Pfizer Inc. (NYSE:PFE) demonstrated "no additional benefit" over comparators. IQWiG said Pfizer's submission did not provide evaluable data because the pharma's selected comparators differed from the comparators used by IQWiG for all but one patient subgroup. IQWiG added that Pfizer did not provide sufficient justification for the use of different comparators and the use of indirect comparison studies instead of head-to-head comparisons.

The Federal Joint Committee (G-BA), which commissions IQWiG to conduct product assessments, selected comparators based on different stages of disease progression. They included no therapy, percutaneous needle fasciotomy (PNF) and partial fasciectomy. Pfizer used partial fasciectomy as the comparator for all stages of the disease. ...