NICE Rejects Five Treatments for COVID-19

The UK’s National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) is not recommending five treatments intended for COVID-19 for National Health Service (NHS) use.

The rejected treatments are Roche’s Ronapreve (casirivimab, imdevimab), GSK’s Xevudy (sotrovimab), AstraZeneca’s Evusheld (tixagevimab plus cilgavimab), Merck’s Lagevrio (molnupiravir) and Gilead Sciences’ Veklury (remdesivir).

The reasons for the rejections included the high uncertainty as to whether Ronapreve, Xevudy and Evusheld can be effective against the Omicron variant. As for Lagevrio and Veklury, while there is some clinical evidence that they are effective at treating COVID-19, they were not found to be cost-effective, NICE said.

However, the agency is recommending Pfizer’s Paxlovid (nirmatrelvir, ritonavir) in a nonhospitalized setting and Roche’s RoActemra (tocilizumab) and Eli Lilly’s Olumiant (baricitinib) in a hospitalized setting with supplemental oxygen.