PARIS, Nov 14 (APM) - Friday’s Official Journal (JO) published the price used to calculate the reference price for Roche’s breast cancer treatment Kadcyla (trastuzumab emtansine).

The pre-tax selling prices to hospitals declared by the company are: 1,798.04 euros for a 100 mg vial of powder to dilute to make up a solution for infusion, and 2,876.86 euros for a 160 mg vial, the JO said. The reference price does not include VAT.

Kadcyla was centrally approved in Europe in November 2013. It is indicated as monotherapy in the “treatment of adult patients with unresectable locally advanced or metastatic HER2-positive breast cancer having previously received trastuzumab (Roche’s Herceptin) and a taxane, separately or in combination. Patients should have received a previous treatment for locally advanced or metastatic disease or have presented disease progression during an adjuvant treatment or within the six months following the end of the treatment”.

In March, France's Transparency Commission (CT) granted it an 'important' clinical benefit (ASMR II) in comparison with the combination of GlaxoSmithKline’s Tyverb/Tykerb (lapatinib) plus Roche’s Xeloda (capecitabine). It acknowledged improvement of progression-free survival and overall survival as well as an acceptable tolerability profile compared with this treatment.

The target population is estimated at 2,250 patients.

Kadcyla was approved for use in hospitals and healthcare institutions in July and then added to the “liste en sus” (costly drugs for hospital use) the next day.

(Journal officiel of November 14, text 106)

eh/aki/hlc