NICE Recommends Yescarta for Certain Forms of Large B-Cell Lymphoma

The UK’s National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) has recommended Kite Pharma’s CAR T-cell therapy Yescarta (axicabtagene ciloleucel) for routine use by the National Health Service (NHS) for the treatment of adults with relapsed or resistant diffuse large B-cell lymphoma and primary mediastinal large B-cell lymphoma and who have had two or more lines of systemic therapy.

Yescarta has been available to NHS patient on a limited basis since 2018 through the Cancer Drugs Fund. Data reviewed by NICE showed that the median overall survival for patients on Yescarta was 28.5 months and 45 percent of participants were alive after three years.

The list price of Yescarta is more than $340,000 per 68-ml single infusion bag. The negotiated price for NHS use was not disclosed.