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ARTICLE | Company News

NHS to reimburse for Kalydeco in England

December 20, 2012 1:32 AM UTC

Vertex Pharmaceuticals Inc. (NASDAQ:VRTX) said the NHS will reimburse the company's cystic fibrosis (CF) drug Kalydeco ivacaftor in England, effective Jan. 1, 2013. Vertex will provide the drug under a patient access scheme, but declined to disclose details. The drug's annual list price in the U.K. is L182,625 ($294,651), with about 270 eligible patients in England. Vertex said it will make Kalydeco available "as quickly as possible" and anticipates reimbursement starting in 2Q13. In July, the European Commission approved Kalydeco to treat CF in patients six years of age or older who have at least one copy of the G551D mutation in the CF transmembrane conductance regulator ( CFTR) gene. On Wednesday, Vertex was down $0.31 to $43.02.

NHS created the Clinical Priorities Advisory Group (CPAG) in September to assess Kalydeco's clinical and cost-effectiveness. The group recommended that NHS cover the drug based on an evaluation conducted by NHS's National Institute for Health Research and a report from the Cystic Fibrosis Clinical Reference Group. Based on CPAG's recommendation, a group of four specialized commissioning groups representing regions in England concluded NHS should cover Kalydeco. ...