The health care system in England and Wales may soon stop funding the use of the drug Revlimid (lenalidomide) to treat multiple myeloma.

The agency responsible for controlling health care costs in those countries has issued a preliminary ruling that treating myeloma with Revlimid is not cost effective.

The agency – the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) – admits that the drug is clinically effective. The once-a-day capsule has been shown to extend the lives of myeloma patients by nearly three years. As …

Lenalidomide (initially known as CC-5013 and marketed as Revlimid by Celgene) is a derivative of thalidomide introduced in 2004. It was initially intended as a treatment for multiple myeloma, for which thalidomide is an accepted therapeutic modality, but has also shown efficacy in the hematological disorders known as the myelodysplastic syndromes. [...]

Bortezomib (originally PS-341 and marketed as Velcade by Millennium Pharmaceuticals) is the first therapeutic proteasome inhibitor to be tested in humans. It is approved in the U.S. for treating relapsed multiple myeloma and mantle cell lymphoma. In multiple myeloma, complete clinical responses have been obtained in patients with otherwise refractory or rapidly advancing disease. [...]