Merck today announced that Mavenclad® (cladribine 10 mg tablets) has been selected as a Rapid Uptake Product1 by the Accelerated Access Collaborative (AAC). It is one of seven medicinal and medical technology products to be identified as a highly transformative innovation by the AAC, which aims to bring forward patient access to selected, highly beneficial and affordable innovations.2
Commenting on the positive news, Gavin Giovannoni, Professor of Neurology at Barts and The London School of Medicine and Dentistry, Queen Mary University of London said
“The journey that cladribine tablets (Mavenclad) has had to get to people with MS is a truly remarkable story. The fact that it has now been selected as one of the innovations of the accelerated access collaborative initiative is a testament to the perseverance of Merck and the MS community.
Cladribine tablets has many highly attractive attributes, including a novel mode of action, high efficacy and a low treatment and monitoring burden; this, with NHS support to promote wider access and adoption of cladribine tablets could transform the treatment of multiple sclerosis in the UK.”
Cladribine tablets are the first short-course oral treatment available in the UK for adults with highly active relapsing MS, that can help reduce relapses for up to four years with a maximum of 20 days’ oral treatment, taken in the first and second year.3,4 Following completion of treatment in the first two years, no additional treatment is required in years 3 and 4.5
“We are delighted that Mavenclad has, yet again, been recognised as an innovative medicinewhich has the potential to offer benefits to both patients and carers as well as value for money to the NHS,” said Liz Henderson, General Manager of Merck UK & ROI.
She added, “Merck is committed to working in partnership with the AAC to address barriers to uptake and increase system efficiencies to ensure all eligible UK patients can benefit from this innovation.”
Today’s announcement follows a decision by NICE in November 2017 to recommend cladribine tablets for eligible NHS patients – the first MS disease modifying therapy to go straight to a positive recommendation through the NICE appraisal process.6 In addition, Merck and NHS England partnered on a commercial agreement to ensure MS patients in England were amongst the first in the world to access the medicine.
Merck is delighted that cladribine tablets have been selected as a Rapid Uptake Product and look forward to working collaboratively with all stakeholders to ensure patients can benefit from this clinically and cost-effective medicine.
Source: Biospace
