The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) has recommended abemaciclib also called Verzenios, made by Eli Lilly, for people with hormone
receptor-positive, HER2-negative, node-positive early breast cancer at high risk of recurrence who have had surgery to remove their tumour.
The clinical trial result showed that people having abemaciclib with hormone therapy had a more than 30 per cent better chance of their cancer not coming back
following surgery compared with people having hormone therapy alone.
Helen Knight, interim director of medicines evaluation at NICE, said: "Today's positive draft recommendation, which comes less than a month after abemaciclib
received its licence, is fantastic news. The fact that we have been able to produce draft recommendations so quickly is testament to the success of our ambition
to support patient access to clinically and cost effective treatments as early as possible.
"Until now there have been no targeted treatments for people with this type of breast cancer. abemaciclib with hormone therapy represents a significant improvement
in how it is treated because being able to have a targeted treatment earlier after surgery will increase the chance of curing the disease and reduce the likelihood
of developing incurable advanced disease."