- England's National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE), the advisor to the National Health Service (NHS) on costs and care quality, has issued draft guidance recommending against routine access to GW Pharmaceuticals' (NASDAQ:GWPH) Epidyolex (cannabidiol) for the treatment of Dravet and Lennox-Gastaut syndromes.
- The review committee conceded that the evidence showed that Epidyolex (branded at Epidiolex in the U.S.), combined with clobazam, reduces seizure frequency but its long-term efficacy is unknown, adding that it questioned the way the company modeled the effect on patients living longer or having a better quality of life.
- NICE Director Meindert Boysen said that they are "committed" to working with the company to resolve the economic modeling issues and to help it understand what it needs to do to mitigate the cost to the NHS (translation: offer a more significant discount).