Pembrolizumab is said to be the first drug to be approved in March through the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency’s Early Access to Medicine Scheme (EAMS).
The scheme aims to give patients with life threatening or seriously debilitating conditions access to medicines that do not yet have a marketing authorization.
The drug is made available on the NHS in England as a treatment for some patients with advanced melanoma.
NICE Health Technology Evaluation Centre director Carole Longson said: "We are pleased to be able to recommend pembrolizumab, the first EAMS drug, in final guidance.
"There were over 13,000 people diagnosed with malignant melanoma in the UK in 2011, and melanoma accounts for more deaths than all other skin cancers combined."
The drug has a marketing authorization in the UK as monotherapy ‘for the treatment of advanced melanoma in adults’.
Life Sciences Minister George Freeman said: "This is good news for the thousands of patients diagnosed with malignant melanoma every year, who can now be treated with this life-enhancing medicine."
Also known as malignant melanoma, Melanoma is a type of cancer that develops from the pigment-containing cells known as melanocytes and typically occurs in the skin.
Melanoma is caused primarily due to ultraviolet light (UV) exposure in those with low levels of skin pigment.
Image: Melanoma on a patient’s skin. Photo: courtesy of National Cancer Institute