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The UK’s National Institute for Clinical Excellence (NICE) in its final draft of the guideline recommended Amgen (NASDAQ:AMGN) and AstraZeneca (NASDAQ:AZN) Tezspire asthma therapy for use in the National Health Service (NHS).
The drug price watchdog recommended Tezspire (tezepelumab) as a maintenance adjunct treatment of severe asthma in patients from 12 years of age, when treatment with high-dose inhaled corticosteroids plus another maintenance treatment has not worked.
Also, the drug was recommended only if people have had three or more exacerbations in the past year or are taking maintenance oral corticosteroids.
NICE said that Tezspire as an add-on maintenance therapy is cost-effective compared to standard care and other biologic treatments.
NICE noted that the list price for tezepelumab is £1265 per 210mg pre-filled syringe per vial based on the company’s May 2022 filing. AstraZeneca is doing Tezspire available to the NHS at a discount, the amount of which is confidential.
Tezspire was approved in the EU and UK in September 2022. While earlier this year the self-administration option of Tezspire was given the green light in the US and EU.
Tezspire competes with the successful biologic therapy Dupixent from Sanofi (SNY) and Regeneron Pharmaceuticals (REGN) in the area of asthma.
