The Scottish Medicines Consortium (SMC) has advised NHS Boards and Area Drug and Therapeutic Committees that pegylated liposomal doxorubicin (Caelyx®) is not recommended for use within NHS Scotland in combination with bortezomib for the treatment of progressive multiple myeloma in patients who have received at least one prior therapy and who have already undergone or are unsuitable for bone marrow transplant.

The Committee added that although results from an interim analysis showed that pegylated liposomal doxorubicin plus bortezomib significantly increased the time to disease progression compared to bortezomib monotherapy, the manufacturer did not present a sufficiently robust economic analysis to gain acceptance by the SMC.