SMC nixes Yervoy over BMS cost estimates
This article was originally published in Scrip
Executive Summary
Bristol-Myers Squibb's Yervoy (ipilimuab) should not be used by NHS Scotland in patients with previously treated advanced melanoma, according to an assessment by the Scottish Medicines Consortium (SMC). The health technology appraisal body for Scotland decided that BMS had not provided sufficient justification of the product's costs in relation to its health benefits, and had not presented a sufficiently robust economic case to gain acceptance by the SMC, although it acknowledged that the drug offered a substantial improvement in life expectancy and that there was a lack of other options of proven benefit for the disease.