NICE recommends against Arzerra

The U.K.'s NICE issued a preliminary appraisal recommending against the use of Arzerra ofatumumab from GlaxoSmithKline plc (LSE:GSK; NYSE:GSK) and Genmab A/S (CSE:GEN) to treat chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) refractory to fludarabine and alemtuzumab. The agency said Arzerra was not an effective use of NHS resources because there were insufficient data on overall survival to provide valid estimates of the effectiveness of Arzerra. It also noted that the most plausible incremental cost-effectiveness ratio (ICER) would be above L81,500 ($121,288) per quality-adjusted life year (QALY). It is generally accepted that a technology must have an incremental cost less than or equal to L20,000-L30,000 per QALY for the agency to consider it cost-effective. Comments are due by July 15. ...