A Comment on Boyers et al.: “Eltrombopag for the Treatment of Chronic Immune or Idiopathic Thrombocytopenic Purpura: A NICE Single Technology Appraisal”

In their publication of the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) single technology appraisal of eltrombopag, Boyers et al. [1] report the results of the indirect treatment comparison (ITC) of eltrombopag and romiplostim, conducted by GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) [the manufacturer of eltrombopag] and made available to NICE as part of the single technology appraisal of eltrombopag. Subsequent to the appraisal process, GSK identified and corrected a methodological error in this analysis (available at http://www.gsk-clinicalstudyregister.com [study ID: 114014]). NICE were made aware of this error in November 2010. This correction was not published as part of the original assessment of eltrombopag and is not used in the Boyers et al. publication [1]. GSK would like to alert the readers of PharmacoEconomics to the corrected data and interpretation of this analysis. The nature of the error, the corrected results and the impact on the conclusions of the article are outlined below.