NEW YORK – The UK's National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) on Thursday recommended Eli Lilly's Retsevmo (selpercatinib) be provided to treatment naïve RET fusion-positive advanced non-small cell lung cancer patients in England through the Cancer Drugs Fund.
In a final draft guidance issued on Thursday, NICE said it was recommending the treatment based on early data from the ongoing Phase I/II LIBRETTO-001 trial. In that study, 84 percent of 69 patients with RET fusion-positive NSCLC responded to Retsevmo, and the median progression-free survival was 22 months. NICE noted in the guidance that the data, while immature, suggest Retsevmo is effective in this population.
Though NICE also found the cost-effectiveness estimates for Retsevmo to be uncertain, it concluded they were likely still outside the range that the National Health Service would fund. The list price for 56 80mg capsules of Retsevmo is £4,368 ($5,564). However, the agency noted its cost-effectiveness calculations were confidential since Lilly had offered to provide the drug to the NHS at an undisclosed discount.
Retsevmo is not recommended for routine use, but its availability through the Cancer Drugs Fund will allow the NHS and Lilly to gather additional long-term data on the drug's impact on patient survival as a first-line treatment in RET-mutated advanced NSCLC. In 2021, NICE recommended Retsevmo for RET-positive advanced NSCLC patients who require systemic therapy and have previously received immunotherapy or platinum-based chemotherapy through the Cancer Drugs Fund.
NICE estimates that about 150 treatment naïve RET fusion-positive advanced NSCLC patients in England could be eligible for this treatment every year.