Health
Ovarian cancer: What is the new drug approved for the NHS in England?
Key Points
A new drug to treat resistant ovarian cancer, and the first to be approved in over two decades, has been approved for patients in the NHS in England. What is the new drug?Mirvetuximab soravtansine (marketed as Elahere), developed by AbbVie, is an advanced, targeted treatment that combines a “homing” antibody with a cancer destroying drug. Often described by scientists as a “biological missile” or “trojan horse” therapy, the drug is already available in the US and Europe.
A new drug to treat resistant ovarian cancer, and the first to be approved in over two decades, has been approved for patients in the NHS in England.What is the new drug?Mirvetuximab soravtansine (marketed as Elahere), developed by AbbVie, is an advanced, targeted treatment that combines a “homing” antibody with a cancer destroying drug.Often described by scientists as a “biological missile” or “trojan horse” therapy, the drug is already available in the US and Europe.It costs £4950 per 100 mg vial at list prices, excluding VAT.1 However, for the health service it is being made available subject to a confidential commercial arrangement between AbbVie and NHS England.How does it work?In contrast to chemotherapy, it uses a targeted therapy that seeks out a specific protein found on the surface of cancer cells called folate receptor alpha (FRα) and delivers a molecule that destroys the cancer cell from within.The drug is given...