UK – Janssen and AbbVie’s Imbruvica combination recommended by NICE for leukaemia

The Janssen Pharmaceutical Companies of Johnson & Johnson and AbbVie’s Imbruvica (ibrutinib) has been recommended by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) as part of a combination treatment for patients with untreated chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL).

CLL is the common type of leukaemia in adults, with around 3,800 people in the UK diagnosed with the disease each year.

While patient outcomes have dramatically improved in the last few decades, CLL is ultimately incurable and patients are often prescribed multiple lines of therapy as they relapse or become resistant to treatments.

Imbruvica works by blocking the Bruton’s tyrosine kinase (BTK) protein, which is needed by normal and abnormal B cells, including specific cancer cells, to multiply and spread…