Britain's healthcare cost-effectiveness agency, National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE), has rejected Imbruvica, a potential breakthrough treatment for leukemia, jointly offered by J&J and AbbVie.
The agency expressed that it wasn't confident that Imbruvica, with a list price of $78,000 per year, represented an effective use of resources, despite the fact that J&J's Janssen is offering the treatment at a discount to the National Health Service.
Last year, AbbVie purchased Pharmacyclics, which had developed Imbruvica in partnership with J&J. The drug is first in a new class of cancer treament known as Burton's tyrosine kinase inhibitors.
Read the Reuters article