LONDON, Feb 2 (Reuters) – Britain’s health cost watchdog NICE sparked a major row on Thursday by snubbing a pricey new prostate cancer pill discovered at the country’s top cancer research centre, a decision critics said was bad for patients and research.

If the draft ruling is upheld after further consultation, Zytiga, which is marketed by Johnson & Johnson, will not be reimbursed on the state-run National Health Service (NHS).

The drug was hailed as a significant advance by cancer doctors after a clinical trial showed it extended the lives of patients with advanced prostate cancer by an average of 3.9 months. Unlike many cancer medicines, it can be taken at home.

It was quickly approved by U.S. and European regulators last year, but Britain’s National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) said it did not provide enough benefit to justify the high cost, even with a discount offered by J&J.

Zytiga, also known as abiraterone, is taken once a day as a single dose of four tablets and costs 2,930 pounds ($4,600) for a 30-day supply.

J&J has offered a discount, the size of which is confidential, and it is possible that further haggling might produce an acceptable pricing deal — but leading cancer charities are alarmed by the impasse.

The Institute of Cancer Research (ICR), whose scientists discovered the medicine, said it hoped NICE would now work with J&J to find a solution.