UK's NICE rejects Novartis's Xolair for children

Novartis's asthma drug Xolair will not be paid for by Britain's national health service (NHS) after the National Institute for Clinical Excellence (NICE) cost watchdog rejected it on Tuesday as too expensive. NICE, which rules on which drugs should be provided for patients on Britain's taxpayer-funded health system, said Xolair, known generically as omalizumab, provided "little additional benefit over existing drugs for the treatment of severe persistent allergic asthma in most children aged 6-11". "Its high cost also means that for the limited benefit it provides, omalizumab does not present value for money for the NHS," NICE said in a statement. The decision is a further a blow to efforts by the two drug companies that market the asthma drug to widen its potential patient group to include children. Novartis and Roche's Genentech unit jointly market Xolair in the United States, while Novartis markets it elsewhere. Xolair, which generated sales of $517m for Genentech and $211m for Novartis, was rejected by US drug regulators in November after an advisory panel voiced concern about its long-term safety. The drug has been cleared since 2003 for use by adults and adolescents aged 12 and older, and was approved by the European Commission last August as an add-on therapy for children aged six to 11 years with severe persistent allergic asthma. NICE said that although asthma affected 1.1 million children in Britain, only about 300 of them would be eligible to try omalizumab.