Researchers question price of GSK’s Nucala
pharmafile | December 23, 2015 | News story | Research and Development | GSK, HEOR, ICER, Nucala, asthma, cost-effective, health economics, health economics outcomes research
GSK is charging up to four times more for its recently approved asthma drug Nucala than is justified by cost-effectiveness thresholds, an influential US health economic analysis group has concluded in a new report.
Nucala (mepolizumab), which was approved last month by the FDA, is a once-monthly injectable drug used to treat severe asthma, which in the US costs $32,500 for a year’s course of treatment. But researchers at the Boston-based Institute for Clinical Economic Review (ICER), say its value-based analysis suggest the drug should be priced at least 63% lower, at between $7,800 and $12,000 a year.
The researchers conducted a comprehensive review of currently available evidence on Nucala, which they say has “triggered significant interest as [a] potential advance in the care of patients with asthma.”
The ICER report analysed the clinical effectiveness, long-term cost-effectiveness, and potential budget impact of prescribing Nucala. The results were used to calculate a value-based price benchmark the drug that “reflects estimates of how much better the interventions are at improving patient outcomes, tempered by thresholds at which additional new costs would contribute to growth in health care costs exceeding growth in the overall national economy.”
The team concluded that “there is moderate certainty that adding mepolizumab to the current standard of care (steroids and other controller medications) provides a comparable or better net health benefit compared to standard care alone in patients with severe eosinophilic asthma… However, there is uncertainty about whether these benefits will persist over the long term because of the short duration of clinical trials for mepolizumab.”
In summary, the annual price of Nucala would need to be discounted by between 63 and 76% to provide better value to patients and the health system. By comparison, Novo Nordisk’s Tresiba (insulin degludec) would need to be discounted by less than 10%, which the report highlights is “well within the range of most negotiated discounts” to provide good value.
“Understanding the value of new drugs is critical,” says Dr Steven Pearson, the founder and president of ICER. “By bringing our scientific approach to evaluating the effectiveness and value of new drugs, we are aiming to help the health care community determine what should be used, which patients benefit most, and at what price innovative treatments represent a reasonable value.”
Lilian Anekwe
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