NHS England and Vertex announce agreement for cystic fibrosis medicines

An access agreement has been announced between NHS England and Vertex Pharmaceuticals Inc for all currently licensed Vertex cystic fibrosis (CF) medicines and any future indications of these medicines.

This means that within 30 days, patients with CF in England aged two years and older who have two copies of the F508del mutation in the CF transmembrane conductance regulator (CFTR) gene can be prescribed ORKAMBI^® (lumacaftor/ivacaftor) by their doctor.

Also, CF patients aged 12 years and older who either have two copies of the F508del mutation or one copy of the F508del mutation and a copy of one of the other 14 licensed mutations can be prescribed SYMKEVI^® (tezacaftor/ivacaftor) in combination with ivacaftor.

“Today is a significant day for the CF community in England,” said Ludovic Fenaux, Senior Vice President, Vertex International. “This important agreement, reached in collaboration and partnership with NHS England and National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE), will allow more than 5,000 eligible CF patients in England to have access to CFTR modulators to treat the underlying cause of their disease.”

The agreement also offers expanded access to KALYDECO^® (ivacaftor) to include people ages 18 years and older who have the R117H mutation and those patients ages 12 months and older who have one of the nine licensed gating mutations.

In addition to England, reimbursement agreements have also recently been announced in Scotland, Australia and Spain.