Patients in England will now have immediate access to the new multiple sclerosis (MS) treatment, cladribine tablets (Mavenclad), thanks to a commercial agreement between the manufacturer, Merck, and NHS England that has been announced today.
Multiple sclerosis
“We are delighted with the NHS England decision on this commercial agreement, which will see patients in England access the treatment immediately,” said Elisabeth Prchla, Merck UK general manager. “This is a first of its kind in MS, which can also be a benchmark for the future, bringing together the NHS, government and industry to achieve faster access for patients, in line with the UK’s Life Sciences Industrial Strategy.”
“This milestone underscores our commitment to unmet needs in the MS community — we have been working closely with NHS England to find a solution that not only provides access to our medicine as early as possible but will also save the NHS money at a time of immense financial pressures.”
The commercial agreement follows on from the positive recommendation that National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) recently gave for the treatment — recommending cladribine tablets as an option for treating highly active MS in adults.
“Merck is committed to improving the lives of patients with MS through the delivery of innovative medicines and patient support programmes. We are delighted that cladribine tablets are now available for certain patients with highly active relapsing-remitting MS and proud to have worked together with NICE and NHS England to deliver this treatment as early as possible,” added Marco Lyons, head of Medical Neurology and Immunology at Merck.
Cladribine tablets were awarded marketing authorisation by the European Commission back in August based on its 12-year clinical trial programme. This comprehensive dataset has informed the regulatory bodies of the appropriate treatment regimens and monitoring requirements.
Patients being administered cladribine tablets take them for a maximum of 10 days in the first year and a maximum of 10 days in the second year with no further treatment required in years three and four. The tablets can be taken at home from dose one and monitoring is only required in the first two years. This means that the burden on hospitals for administration and monitoring of MS treatment can be reduced.