NICE has Gilenya appraisal 'very wrong', says Novartis
This article was originally published in Scrip
Executive Summary
NICE has got its preliminary draft recommendations rejecting Novartis's Gilenya (fingolimod) for treating relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis (RRMS) "very wrong," says the company. The health technology appraisal institute for England and Wales said no to Gilenya, the first pill for treating MS, because of doubts about its relative effectiveness and said that Novartis used the wrong comparators in its submission. But Novartis argues that its choice of comparative treatments was fully aligned with prevailing clinical guidelines, and that NICE’s recommendation denies patient access to a disease-modifying drug. Furthermore, the company maintains that NICE has chosen to ignore significant parts of the information supplied to it by Novartis.