Life-Extending Metastatic Breast Cancer Treatment Halaven® (Eribulin) to Remain Available to Women in England Through the National Cancer Drugs Fund

News provided by

Eisai

22 Jul, 2015, 13:32 GMT

HATFIELD, England, July 22, 2015 /PRNewswire/ --

PRESS STATEMENT FOR UK MEDIA 

Life-extending advanced breast cancer treatment Halaven® (eribulin) will continue to be available on the Cancer Drugs Fund. The news is a result of discussions between Eisai and NHS England and reflects the proven efficacy and safety of eribulin.

The treatment will now continue to be available to patients in England living with metastatic breast cancer. More than 2,000 women have been prescribed eribulin through the CDF since 2011.

"I am glad that NHS England and Eisai have managed to come to an agreement that ensures this important treatment option can remain available for women with advanced breast cancer," commented Dr Vivek Misra, Consultant in Clinical Oncology at The Christie NHS Foundation Trust, Manchester.

"We do not and cannot support a shambolic process that has put women in England living with advanced breast cancer through extraordinary stress and uncertainty. Eisai have made substantial concessions to NHS England that may have a profound and direct impact on our activity in the UK, which may ultimately affect the future treatment options available to patients. Nobody wins when innovative companies like Eisai cannot deliver cancer treatments to patients. Eisai has had to negotiate a short-sighted, simplistic and short-term agreement to ensure the needs of patients were met and Halaven retains its rightful place on the CDF. We firmly believe that giving patients access to life-extending medicines is more important than cost. The reality is that developing innovative cancer drugs is costly. In the future we must refrain from putting a price tag on giving women with advanced breast cancer more time with their loved ones.  We need a sustainable way forward to ensure accelerated access to important cancer drugs," commented Gary Hendler, CEO Eisai EMEA and President of the Global Oncology Business Unit.

Eribulin is indicated for the treatment of women with locally advanced or metastatic breast cancer who have progressed after at least one chemotherapeutic regimen for advanced disease. Prior therapy should have included an anthracycline and a taxane in either the adjuvant or metastatic setting, unless patients were not suitable for these treatments.[1]

Eribulin remains the only single agent chemotherapy to significantly improve overall survival in women with advanced breast cancer after anthracycline and taxane treatment. Metastatic breast cancer is a very difficult condition to treat and only 13% of women will survive beyond five years.

Notes to Editors  

Halaven® (eribulin)  

Eribulin is the first in the halichondrin class of microtubule dynamics inhibitors with a novel mechanism of action. Structurally eribulin is a simplified and synthetically produced version of halichondrin B, a natural product isolated from the marine sponge Halichondria okadai. Eribulin is believed to work by inhibiting the growth phase of microtubule dynamics which prevents cell division.

Eribulin is indicated for the treatment of women with locally advanced or metastatic breast cancer who have progressed after at least one chemotherapeutic regimen for advanced disease. Prior therapy should have included an anthracycline and a taxane in either the adjuvant or metastatic setting, unless patients were not suitable for these treatments.[1]

About Eisai Co., Ltd. 

Eisai Co., Ltd. is a leading global research and development-based pharmaceutical company headquartered in Japan. We define our corporate mission as "giving first thought to patients and their families and to increasing the benefits health care provides," which we call our human health care (hhc) philosophy. With over 10,000 employees working across our global network of R&D facilities, manufacturing sites and marketing subsidiaries, we strive to realise our hhc philosophy by delivering innovative products in multiple therapeutic areas with high unmet medical needs, including Oncology and Neurology. 

As a global pharmaceutical company, our mission extends to patients around the world through our investment and participation in partnership-based initiatives to improve access to medicines in developing and emerging countries.

For more information about Eisai Co., Ltd., please visit http://www.eisai.com.  

Reference 

  1. SPC Halaven (updated June 2014). Available at: http://www.medicines.org.uk/emc/medicine/24382/SPC/Halaven+0.44+mg+ml+solution+for+injection/ Accessed: July 2015

Job code: Halaven-UK0434
Date of preparation: July 2015