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Body backs Sanofi’s Taxotere in prostate cancer

LONDON (Reuters) - A cost-effectiveness watchdog said on Friday it was provisionally recommending that Sanofi-Aventis SA’s chemotherapy drug Taxotere should be used to treat prostate cancer on the state health service.

A spokesman for the National Institute for Clinical Excellence said final guidance was likely to be issued around July next year, covering the use of the drug in men with advanced hormone refractory prostate cancer.

Until then, about 800 men in Scotland who could benefit from Taxoterer to releive pain and progression of advanced prostate cancer are on hold. Some of them may die waiting.

The Scotsman’s reporter Louise Gray Drug approval boosts cancer patients says: “Prostate cancer patients were given new hope yesterday when medicine regulators indicated a life-saving new drug may soon be available on the NHS. Taxotere could reduce pain and extend the lives of up to 800 men in Scotland, but has failed to gain approval for use on the NHS by the Scottish Medicines Consortium (SMC). However, the English equivalent - the National Institute of Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) - provisionally approved it yesterday. ”

NICE rulings supersede decisions by the SMC, because of the more rigorous checking process, so the drug will be available across the UK if approved.

The SMC had refused on cost grounds to approve Taxotere. It can add months to the life of men with advanced hormone-resistant prostate cancer, but costs up to £10,000.

Yesterday, the Prostate Cancer Charity said the SMC was “creating difficulties for clinicians and patients” in initially refusing the drug, and called for a rethink.

John Neate, the charity’s chief executive, said: “I would urge the SMC and the NHS in Scotland … to take no steps to deny men with prostate cancer access to this important drug.”