Amgen, AstraZeneca's asthma therapy Tezspire gets UK's NICE backing
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U.K.'s National Institute for Clinical Excellence (NICE) in its final draft guidance recommended Amgen (NASDAQ:AMGN) and AstraZeneca's (NASDAQ:AZN) asthma therapy Tezspire for use in the National Health Service (NHS).
The drug pricing watchdog recommended Tezspire (tezepelumab) as an add-on maintenance treatment for severe asthma in patients 12 years and over, when treatment with high-dose inhaled corticosteroids plus another maintenance treatment has not worked.
In addition, the drug was recommended only if people have had three or more exacerbations in the previous year or are having maintenance oral corticosteroids.
NICE said that the Tezspire as an add-on maintenance therapy is cost effective compared with standard care and other biological treatments.
NICE noted that the list price for tezepelumab is Â£1,265 per 210 mg prefilled syringe per vial as per the company's filing in May 2022. AstraZeneca is making Tezspire available to the NHS with a discount, the amount of which is confidential.
Tezspire was approved in the EU and the U.K. in September 2022. Whereas, earlier this year, Tezspire's self-administration option received a greenlight in the U.S. and EU.
Tezspire is competing with Sanofi (SNY) and Regeneron Pharmaceuticals' (REGN) blockbuster biologic therapy Dupixent in the asthma space.