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National health authorities, U.K.’s NICE determines Gilead’s cancer cell therapy exorbitant

The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) found Gilead’s cancer cell therapy, Yescarta to be clinically efficacious for treating a type of lymphoma, but no ample evidence is present to estimate the benefit over salvage chemotherapy. NICE took a considerable view on Yescarta’s efficaciousness, considering the cell therapy that delivered good response rates, overall survival and progression-free survival in treating diffuse large B-cell lymphoma. Therapies cost surpassed USD 65,000 per quality-adjusted life years. In the U.S., Yescarta carries a list price of USD 373,000. A government in England cost agency judged the cancer cell therapy as exorbitant that cannot be included for coverage through the state-funded health system. This obstructs the plans of biotech to get the CAR-T treatment available in the country. It was followed by the permission of Yescarta’s use from the European Commission across EU countries.  This leads to determine NICE if covering a new therapy is a cost-effective use of National Health Service resources or not.