Eribulin for treating locally advanced or metastatic breast cancer after 1 chemotherapy regimen

2.1 Eribulin (Halaven, Eisai) is indicated for 'the treatment of adult patients with locally advanced or metastatic breast cancer who have progressed after at least one chemotherapeutic regimen for advanced disease… Prior therapy should have included an anthracycline and a taxane in either the adjuvant or metastatic setting unless patients were not suitable for these treatments'.

2.2 1.23 mg/m² is administered intravenously over 2 to 5 minutes on days 1 and 8 of every 21‑day cycle.

2.3 £361.00 per 0.88 mg/2 ml solution for injection vial and £541.50 per 1.32 mg/3 ml solution for injection vial (excluding VAT; British national formulary [BNF] online, accessed October 2017). The company has agreed a patient access scheme with the Department of Health. If eribulin had been recommended, this scheme would provide a simple discount to the list price of eribulin with the discount applied at the point of purchase or invoice. The level of the discount is commercial in confidence. The Department of Health considered that this patient access scheme would not constitute an excessive administrative burden on the NHS.