We de­stroyed near­ly 8,000 packs of ex­pired Orkam­bi stock last year, Ver­tex tells UK MPs

To the hor­ror of UK cys­tic fi­bro­sis pa­tients, a Ver­tex ex­ec­u­tive dis­closed on Wednes­day that last year close to 8,000 packs (each con­tain­ing a 28-day sup­ply) of Orkam­bi were de­stroyed af­ter cross­ing their ex­piry date. The US drug­mak­er has been locked in ne­go­ti­a­tion with NICE, which has re­fused to al­low the drug in to Eng­land’s Na­tion­al Health Ser­vice un­til Ver­tex of­fers it a dis­count on the treat­ment’s price tag that would com­pel the agency to look fa­vor­ably up­on its cost-ef­fec­tive­ness.

Unlock this article instantly by becoming a free subscriber.

You’ll get access to free articles each month, plus you can customize what newsletters get delivered to your inbox each week, including breaking news.

SIGN UP LOG IN BECOME A PREMIUM SUBSCRIBER